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THE  SOUTH  FAITHFUL  TO  HER  DUTIES. 


SPEECH 


HON.  MATT  W,  RANSOM, 


OF  NOETH  CAROLINA, 


IN  THE 


UNITED  STATES  SENATE, 


FEBRUARY  17,  1875. 


WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT    PRINTING    OFFICE. 
1875. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


4 


http://archive.org/details/southfaithfultohOOrans 


SPEECH 

OF 

HON.    MATT    W.    EANSOM. 


The  Senate  having  under  consideration  the  resolution  for  the  admission  of  P.  B. 
S.  Pinchback  as  Senator  from  Louisiana — 

Mr.  RANSOM  said : 

Mr.  President  :  After  the  long  and  anxious  night  we  have  passed, 
the  light  of  morning  pours  through  the  eastern  windows  of  the  Capi- 
tol. I  trust  it  is  the  auspicious  dawn  of  a  brighter  day  for  the  Re- 
public. I  approach  this  debate  with  extreme  anxiety.  Never  before 
did  1  feel  so  deeply  the  want  of  those  great  abilities  that  can  assert 
and  vindicate  the  truth;  for  never  before  were  questions  of  pro- 
founder  magnitude  presented  to  the  American  Senate. 

For  nearly  three  years  I  have  sat  silently  in  this  Chamber,  with  the 
hope  that  by  pursuing  a  course,  as  I  thought,  of  impartial  and  patri- 
otic duty  toward  all  and  every  part  of  the  country,  I  might  have 
some  influence  in  satisfying  northern  Senators  that  the  South  desired 
peace  with  the  North  and  a  restored  and  fraternal  Union  of  all  the 
States  of  the  Republic.  I  came  from  the  true  State  of  North  Carolina 
to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  with  a  sacred  purpose  to  reconcile 
the  once  divided  people  of  my  country,  to  harmonize  all  sectional 
differences  and  disputes,  to  bury  in  oblivion  every  bitter  recollection 
of  war,  and  to  convince  the  people  of  the  North  that  our  people  of 
the  South  sincerely  desired  to  live  with  them  in  concord  under  the 
common  protection  of  a  constitutional  and  united  Government.  Be- 
fore this  greatest  and  best  desire  of  my  life,  the  desire  of  having  a 
part  in  restoring  the  Union  of  the  States  firmly  in  the  hearts  of  all 
our  people,  all  other  passions  sank  into  insignificance.  This  was  the 
great  object  of  my  political  existence.  To  accomplish  it,  no  sacrifice 
seemed  too  dear,  except  the  dishonor  of  my  State  and  the  South.  I 
knew  this  inestimable  blessing  to  my  country  could  only  be  consum- 
mated by  our  doing  full  justice  to  the  North  and  by  the  North  doing 
full  justice  to  us,  and  I  had  faith  that  both  sections  would  be  equal 
to  that  great  duty.  If  this  faith  was  right,!  saw  for  my  country  the 
grandest  destiny  upon  earth ;  if  it  was  false,  I  beheld  in  the  future 
nothing  but  appalling  darkness.  For,  unless  this  Union  is  based 
upon  the  foundations  of  justice  and  the  affections  of  all  the  people, 
nothing  but  force  can  maintain  it ;  and  a  Union  habitually  supported 
by  force  ceases  to  be  a  free  government  and  becomes  a  despotism,  the 
stronger  and  the  sterner  in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  territory  and  the 
magnitude  of  the  interests  it  dominates.  I  had  too,  and  still  have, 
this  thought,  one  that  to  many  of  you  may  appear  strange  and  un- 
natural, but  still  sincere  and  true  and  ardently  cultivated  in  my 
bosom,  that  as  I  had  fought  for  the  South  and  its  cause  had  failed 
and  the  Union  had  been  established,  it  became  me  as  a  true  man  to 


?5 


<L 


render  to  the  Government  of  my  country,  now  embraced  by  me,  the 
same  devotion — for  I  could  have  no  greater— "that  I  had  exhibited  to 
the  South. 

With  these  sentiments,  Mr.  President,  I  took  the  oath  of  office  on 
the  right  of  the  chair  which  you  now  occupy.  With  any  others  in 
my  breast  I  never  would  have  taken  a  seat  in  this  Chamber.  I  felt 
the  pride  of  a  man  when  these  thoughts  stirred  within  me.  I  knew 
that  they  did  not  lessen  in  any  sense  my  duty,  my  love,  my  very  soul 
for  the  people  of  the  South.  I  felt  that  these  sentiments  were  com- 
patible with  their  highest  honor,  and  that  in  entertaining  and  acting 
upon  them  here  I  but  represented  their  own  generous  and  patriotic 
sensibility.  I  knew  we  had  passed  a  dark  and  stormy  night,  but  I 
also  knew  that  political  justice  was  the  great  element  which,  like  the 
sun  in  the  morning,  would  dispel  from  the  hearts  of  our  people  every 
cloud  and  memory  of  the  tempest. 

With  these  convictions  I  have  thought  most  anxiously,  day  and 
night,  upon  my  duty  since  the  commencement  of  this  debate.  It  is 
true  I  have  had  no  doubt  at  any  time — I  could  not  possibly  have  a 
doubt — as  to  the  character  of  the  events  that  have  transpired  at  New 
Orleans.  Unless  the  lessons  of  human  history  and  the  principles  of 
free  government  had  been  suddenly  eclipsed  in  my  judgment,  I  could 
have  on  that  subject  but  one  opinion.  But  my  anxiety  has  been  in 
reference  to  the  right  course  for  me  to  pursue  in  meeting  the  issues 
that  have  arisen  in  this  discussion.  I  have  considered  that  subject 
with  the  deepest  concern.  I  have  devoted  to  it  the  best  thought  I 
possess.  I  have  brought  to  it  as  pure  patriotism  as  I  can  feel,  and 
I  am  profoundly  thankful  that  a  paramount  regard  for  the  purposes 
which  I  have  declared  to  animate  me  as  a  Senator  imperatively  com- 
mands me  not  to  depart  a  hair's  breadth  from  the  line  of  those  pur- 
poses in  consequence  of  any  of  the  provocations  given  in  this  discus- 
sion. Acting  under  this  high  duty,  I  feel  that  I  owe  it  to  the  noble 
State  that  honors  me  with  her  confidence,  to  the  people  of  the  South 
who  have  my  sympathy  and  affection,  and  to  the  country  at  whose 
altars  I  minister,  to  surrender  the  natural  and  just  resentments  ex- 
cited by  unprovoked  assaults  of  a  personal  and  sectional  character,  as 
another  offering  to  the  peace  of  my  country,  and  to  speak  this  day 
without  passion  or  prejudice  for  the  safety  and  honor  of  the  nation. 
Yes,  sir,  I  am  thankful,  profoundly  thankful  that  my  wish  for  har- 
mony is  too  deeply  cherished,  my  resolution  to  reconcile  and  restore 
too  firmly  fixed,  to  be  shaken  by  unjust  utterances  here  or  else- 
where. 

If  at  any  time  during  the  progress  of  this  debate  an  intelligent 
stranger  had  entered  this  Chamber  and  listened  to  the  speeches  of 
republican  Senators  he  would  have  been  profoundly  impressed  with 
their  statements  in  reference  to  the  South.  Hearing  the  repeated 
accusations  that  that  people  were  ruthlessly  violating  every  principle 
of  justice  and  humanity,  that  their  hands  were  red  with  innocent 
blood,  and  that  they  were  organizing  a  conspiracy  to  subvert  by 
armed  force  the  authority  of  the  National  Government  and  to  estab- 
lish a  revolution  on  its  ruins,  he  would  naturally  have  been  shocked 
at  the  startling  enormity  of  the  charge  and  in  all  probability  would 
examine  the  foundations  upon  which  it  was  based.  Inquiring  into  the 
history,  condition,  intelligence,  and  character  of  this  denounced  peo- 
ple, he  would  behold  them  numbering  eight  million  beings,  occupying 
a  territory  that  extends  from  the  Potomac  and  the  Ohio  to  the  Gulf ' 
of  Mexico,  and  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  across  the  great  Mississippi 
to  the  very  boundaries  of  civilization,  embracing  in  its  area  twelve 
States,  subdivided  into  more  than  a  thousand  counties.     All  over 


these  States  he  would  see  public  and  private  schools,  seminaries  of 
learning,  colleges  and  universities.  Throughout  their  length  and 
breadth  are  the  churches  and  the  altars  of  all  religious  denomina- 
tions. Long  and  frequent  lines  of  railroads  permeate  and  traverse 
every  portion  of  their  surface.  The  United  States  mails  are  dis- 
tributed throughout  every  township  in  their  limits.  The  press  of 
the  country,  that  great  luminary  which,  with  the  sun,  scatters  its 
daily  beams  over  the  world,  penetrates  with  diversified  and  opposing 
rays  every  corner  of  this  vast  domain.  The  lines  of  the  electric  tele- 
graph flash  intelligence  to  all  the  people.  The  great  highways  of 
commerce  unite  all  their  interest  with  the  North  and  the  world. 
Visitors  by  thousands  from  the  East,  the  North,  and  the  West,  for 
curiosity,  for  health,  or  profit  daily  cross  their  lines  and  pass  over 
their  country.  Tourists  from  Europe,  attracted  by  the  climate  and 
interested  in  the  history  of  the  people,  linger  among  the  beautiful 
scenes  of  nature  or  visit  the  shrines  and  spots  in  that  stricken  land 
that  are  consecrated  to  deathless  fame.  The  earnest  seeker  for  truth 
would  fail  to  find  in  any  of  these  incidents  cause  for  or  proof  of  a 
dark  and  hidden  conspiracy  greater  in  proportion,  but  not  less 
damning  in  its  character,  than  the  accursed  conception  which  made 
the  name  of  Catiline  an  immortal  infamy. 

Mr.  President,  not  in  India,  not  in  South  America,  not  in  Mexico, 
not  in  Jamaica,  not  in  Eome  in  the  last  and  bloodiest  days  of  her  de- 
cline, not  in  lawless  and  impious  modern  Italy,  has  there  ever  been 
found  a  people  so  lost,  so  blind,  so  callous  to  every  sense  of  justice 
and  humanity  as  the  people  of  the  South  are,  if  one-half  that  has 
been  charged  in  this  Chamber  be  true.  And  yet  we  behold  that  peo- 
ple surrounded  by  and  possessed  of  all  the  incidents  of  the  highest 
type  of  civilization. 

If  Senators  will  examine  their  own  hearts,  if  they  will  weigh  this 
question  with  calm  judgment,  they  will  find  that  they  have  deceived 
themselves.  They  will  find  that  they  express  what  in  their  deepest 
convictions  they  do  not  feel. 

I  do  not  intend  to  irritate  or  to  give  offense  in  what  I  shall  say  here. 
If  any  person  thinks  so  he  mistakes  me.  I  wish  to  pour  oil  on  these 
troubled  waters.  I  desire  to  heal  these  wounds.  I  seek  to  cure  this 
malady.  I  do'not  intend  to  aggravate  or  continue  it.  I  am  speaking 
to-day  with  all  the  solemnity  of  a  man  who  defends  a  great  people, 
and  if  I  should  utter  one  word  that  might  retard,  or  prevent,  or  in 
any  way  hinder  a  thorough  reconciliation  between  the  sections,  I 
should  deplore  the  day  that  I  was  born.  I  ask  Senators  now  to  think 
with  me  on  this  question.  It  has  been  a  custom  in  this  Senate — which 
is  the  most  deliberate,  the  most  courteous,  the  most  refined,  the  most 
exalted  legislative  body  upon  the  earth,  where  every  propriety  of 
speech,  every  courtesy  of  manner,  every  sentiment  of  duty  is  strictly 
observed,  where  Senators  are  tender  of  the  feelings  of  brother  Sen- 
ators— to  speak  of  the  southern  people  as  traitors,  as  red-handed 
murderers,  as  stained  with  barbarism,  as  having  attempted  the  dark- 
est and  the  bloodiest  horror  in  human  history.  Senators,  it  is  but 
just  to  you  for  me  to  say  that  when  you  so  speak  you  do  not  utter 
your  own  convictions.  You  are  obliged  to  say  you  do  not  in  jus- 
tice to  yourselves.  For  if  you  think  that  the  southern  people,  eight 
millions  of  them,  the  leaders  of  them,  are  traitors,  murderers,  and 
assassins,  how  dare  you,  in  the  light  of  your  duty  to  your  country,  to 
your  families,  and  to  your  God,  consent  to  embrace  them  as  country- 
men and  brothers  ?  You  did  not  believe  it ;  you  do  not  believe  it. 
You  know  you  do  not  believe  it. 


Perhaps  there  is  something  in  the  history  of  this  southern  people 
that  justifies  this  frightful  suspicion  and  fills  the  minds  of  Senators 
with  alarm  and  dread.  That  cannot  be.  For  they  are  the  children 
of  the  brave  English  ancestors  who  for  love  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty  left  the  shores  of  Europe  and  settled  the  New  World.  They 
are  the  immediate  descendants  of  the  bold  and  wise  men  who  helped 
to  establish  American  independence  and  to  frame  this  grand  and 
magnificent  Government.  Their  illustrious  fathers  have  certainly 
handed  down  to  them  the  passion  for  liberty  and  the  principle  of 
constitutional  freedom.  We  have  inherited  it  for  eight  hundred 
years  from  our  ancestors  ;  but  those  ancestors  have  not  transmitted 
any  taint  of  or  example  for  secret  treasons.  In  the  English  heart  the 
spirit  of  conspiracy  never  found  a  congenial  home.  It  is  the  growth 
of  other  soils.  But  have  not  recent  events,  you  will  say,  furnished 
reasonable  grounds  for  these  apprehensions  of  a  secret  colossal  or- 
ganization hostile  to  the  Government  ?  Has  not  the  South  just 
emerged  from  a  gigantic  war  which  menaced  the  very  existence  of  the 
Union  ?  That  is  very  true  ;  but  remember  that  it  was  open,  bold,  de- 
fiant war — threatened  for  years,  proclaimed  here,  published  to  the 
world ;  declared  by  the  press,  from  the  pulpit,  and  the  hustings ;  the 
opinion  of  mankind  and  the  blessings  of  Heaven  invoked  in  its  be- 
half, and  the  lives  of  a  people  offered  to  vindicate  its  justice.  It  was 
no  concealed,  hidden,  mysterious,  masked  conspiracy.  Had  it  been, 
never,  never  could  it  have  enlisted  the  devoted  hearts  of  the  noble 
people  who  sacrificed  everything  but  honor  around  its  shrine.  Its 
purposes  were  spoken  here ;  they  were  never  concealed  or  denied. 
Its  councils  were  in  the  light  of  heaven.  Its  lines  of  battle  stretched 
across  the  continent.  Brave  hearts  in  broad  day  were  its  defenses, 
and  around  it  clustered  the  hopes  and  pride  of  a  pure  and  patriotic 
people.  Are  courage,  truth,  honor,  constancy,  fortitude,  and  un- 
sullied virtue  evidences  that  the  people  who  possess  them  will  descend 
from  that  high  estate,  and,  forgetful  of  all  duty,  resort  to  the  lowest 
practices  of  cowardice  and  crime  ?  If  this  be  true,  human  character 
is  indeed  worthless,  national  honor  a  mockery  and  an  imposture. 

Senators,  if  you  will  think  for  a  moment ;  if  you  will  reflect  upon 
the  character  of  the  people  whom  you  denounce,  their  history,  their 
associations,  the  language  they  speak,  their  great  ancestors,  their 
brotherhood  with  you  for  nearly  a  century,  and  their  position  now, 
you  cannot  believe  this  calumny.  Do  you,  can  you,  believe  that  a 
people  from  whom  have  sprung  in  each  succeeding  generation  for 
one  hundred  years  a  line  of  statesmen,  diviues,  scholars,  and  heroes 
inferior  to  none  in  any  portion  of  the  Union  have  suddenly  descended 
under  the  shadow  of  your  civilization  to  the  depth  of  barbarism J? 
Does  history  or  human  experience  justify  any  such  conclusion  ? 

And  yet  you  call  now  upon  the  public  opinion  of  the  world  to 
believe  that  one-half  of  your  whole  nation,  brothers  in  blood  with 
you,  sharers  of  the  same  inheritance  of  our  fathers,  honored  Ameri- 
can freemen,  educated,  virtuous,  and  associated  with  you — you  call 
uj>on  the  world  to  believe  that  they  are  now  guilty  and  habitually 
guilty  of  darker  crimes  than  have  ever  been  committed  in  human 
history.  And  instead  of  devoting  our  energies,  our  patriotism,  our 
intelligence,  and  our  virtues  here  to  develop,  reform,  and  improve 
this  great  country,  we  are  now  carrying  on  a  war  on  the  floor  of  the 
Senate  with  each  other  almost  as  bitter,  and  I  fear  not  quite  as  manly, 
as  that  in  which  we  were  engaged  a  few  years  ago  upon  the  Potomac 
and  the  Susquehanna. 

Senators  this  is  wrong.    Before  God,  it  is  wicked.    Cannot  we  stop 


it?  An  incident  in  history  occurs  tome  now  which  I  do. not  know 
that  I  have  thought  of  for  twenty  years.  I  remember  the  story, 
told  I  think  by  Thucydides,  of  the  two  Greek  generals  who  had  not 
spoken  for  years.  A  bitter  and  hereditary  feud  separated  them.  The 
Persians  were  at  the  gates  of  Athens.  The  lines  of  battle  were  drawn 
in  front  of  the  city.  The  Persian  hosts,  vastly  superior  in  number, 
confronted  the  thin  line  of  the  Greeks,  and  the  great  fear  with  the 
city  was  tbat  the  dissension  between  the  two  generals  might  cause 
defeat  and  ruin.  Just  before  the  battle  commenced,  the  historian 
says,  from  either  wiug  of  the  Greek  lines  the  rival  leaders  were  seen 
approaching  in  frout  of  their  troops,  and  simultaneously  reaching  the 
center  impulsively  seized  each  other's  hands  and  exclaimed — I  remem- 
ber the  old  Greek  words — Y-aTadanTU/iev  x°^Vv — "  Let  us  bury  our  an- 
ger." Need  I  repeat  that  victory  shone  upon  that  godlike  act  of  patri- 
otism? 

They  buried  their  anger ;  and  why  cannot  you  and  I,  the  North 
and  the  Sottth,  shake  hands  and  bury  our  anger  ?  I  think  I  know 
the  South.  I  was  born  south  of  the  Potomac.  My  ancestors  have 
lived  there  for  two  hundred  years.  I  was  raised  there  ;  I  was  educated 
tbere.  I  hardly  know  any  other  place.  Everything  I  have  is  there. 
I  love  her  people  and  am  with  them.  I  see  them  at  home.  I  see  them 
in  Louisiana.  I  see  them  in  Texas.  I  know  them  in  Virginia.  I  am 
in  the  very  bosom  of  the  South,  and  I  think  the  sentiment  that  I  utter 
here  to-day  is  the  sentiment  of  her  people.  I  do  not  think — I  know 
it  is  their  sentiment. 

Mr.  President,  the  charge  made  on  this  floor  that  the  "  expression 
and  operation  of  Union  sentiments  from  southern  representatives  are 
confined  to  this  Chamber,  that  one  set  of  opinions  prevail  in  the  Sen- 
ate and  another  at  home,"  is  as  absurd  as  unjust.  The  telegraph  takes 
the  words  from  your  lips  if  they  are  worthy  to  go,  and  bears  them 
immediately  to  the  Gulf.  The  Eecord  carries  them  all  over  the 
country.  And  every  Senator  understands  as  well  as  I  do — you,  Mr. 
President,  understand  it  perfectly,  and  I  say  it  in  no  disparagement ; 
it  is  what  every  public  man  ought  to  understand,  it  is  what  every 
public  man  ought  to  appreciate — you  know  that  public  men  are  not 
apt  to  avow  sentiments  that  they  suppose  to  be  unpopular  at  home. 
If  the  Senate  will  pardon  me,  as  this  imputation  has  been  made  by 
two  Senators  in  this  debate  and  may  have  some  weight,  I  will  ask 
the  Clerk  to  read  the  extract  on  the  first  page  of  the  book  I  send  to 
him. 

The  Chief  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

I  thank  God  there  are  flowers  enough  in  this  beautiful  land  of  the  South  to  strew 
upon  the  graves  of  those  who  fell  alike  in  the  Gray  and  the  Blue,  and  there  are 
hearts  pure  and  large  enough  and  hands  gentle  and  generous  enough  to  perform 
the  holy  duty. 

Mr.  RANSOM.  In  May,  1870, 1  was  honored  by  the  ladies  of  North 
Carolina  with  a  request  to  deliver  a  memorial  address  over  the  con- 
federate dead  in  the  capital  of  the  State.  And  before  thousands  of 
our  people  I  felt  it  my  duty  at  that  time,  five  years  ago,  to  utter 
those  sentiments. 

Mr.  President,  can  it  be  said  that  tbe  operation  and  influence  of 
Union  sentiments  are  confined  to  the  Senate  Chamber?  I  know 
the  Senate  will  pardon  me,  for  there  is  nothing  like  making  a  clean 
breast  when  you  want  to  bring  conviction.  I  spoke  those  words 
when  the  ink  was  not  dry  upon  the  paper  which  proclaimed  to  the 
southern  people  that  their  friends  had  not  been  allowed  to  honor  the 
graves  of  the  confederate  soldiers  at  Arlington! 


8 

I  knew  very  well  that  day's  injustice  had  consecrated  a  sorrow 
to  immortality.  I  knew  that  as  long  as  letters  and  language  en- 
dured, whenever  the  good  read  of  that  act,  their  hearts  in  tender 
thought  would  go  to  the  heights  of  Arlington  and  in  imagination 
scatter  upon  those  bleak  graves  with  the  tears  of  sympathy  the  immor- 
telles of  affection. 

I  will  be  obliged  to  the  Clerk  if  he  will  read  a  protion  of  the 
paragraph  in  the  second  column  of  the  paper  which  I  send  to  the 
desk.  It  is  in  reference  to  a  speech  delivered  by  me  in  Salisbury, 
North  Carolina,  two  years  ago — since  I  have  been  in  the  Senate. 

The  Chief  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

On  this  ground  the  speaker  foresaw  the  early  return  of  a  day  of  thorough  rec- 
onciliation between  the  sections  lately  engaged  in  deadly  conflict  and  still  es- 
tranged by  the  yet  lingering  passion  kindled  by  the  war  and  kept  alive  by  the  arts 
of  the  demagogue,  fie  eould  see  the  returning  sense  of  justice,  the  growth  of 
a  more  fraternal  feeling,  and  a  consciousness  of  mutual  dependence  and  co-opera- 
tion for  the  grand  purpose  of  building  up  and  maintaining  the  mighty  nation  it 
seemed  the  purpose  of  Providence  to  have  founded. 

It  was  a  speech  for  the  nation  to  hear,  for  it  was  so  full  of  wise  counsel  and 
hopeful  suggestion  that  its  influence  would  be  most  happily  felt  in  allaying  sec- 
tional animosities  and  kindling  afresh  the  fire  of  a  common  patriotism. 

Mr.  RANSOM.  That  is  the  comment  of  a  leading  newspaper  upon 
a  feeble  effort  made  in  that  part  of  North  Carolina  known  as  the  re- 
bellious section  of  the  State.  The  character  of  that  people  in  the 
American  Revolution  won  from  Colonel  Tarltonof  the  British  army 
the  expression  that  it  was  the  "  Hornet's-nest  of  America."  I  think 
that  I  would  have  spoken  those  sentiments  had  they  cost  me  my 
popularity,  had  they  cost  me  my  position ;  but  you  see  what  the 
newspaper  says  about  them,  and  papers  generally  reflect  public  opin- 
ion. Mr.  President,  may  I  say  that  my  presence  here  to-day  is  the 
best  proof  that  these  sentiments  are  approved  by  the  people  of  my 
State? 

But,  Mr.  President,  I  hope  you  will  pardon  me  for  another  personal 
allusion.  I  do  not  make  these  allusions  as  affecting  me.  I  speak  of 
them  as  the  expressions  of  a  representative  of  his  State.  One  of  my 
first  acts  in  this  body,  one  of  the  first  places  in  which  my  name 
appears  upon  the  record,  is  where  I  was  appointed  on  the  committee 
of  conference  with  the  Senator  from  Louisiana  [Mr.  West]  and  the 
Senator  from  Illinois,  [Mr.  Logan.]  There  was  a  disagreement  be- 
tween the  Senate  and  the  House  upon  an  amendment  appropriating 
about  a  million  dollars  to  erect  permanent  and  durable  monuments 
over  the  graves  of  Union  soldiers.  The  amendment  was  attached  to 
the  Army  appropriation  bill  by  the  Senate.  I  remember  well  telling 
my  friend  from  New  Jersey  [Mr.  STOCKTON]  what  my  course  would 
be  on  it.  The  Senator  from  Louisiana  is  in  his  seat  and  I  know  he 
will  say  that  I  was  the  first  and  last  man  to  enforce  the  adoption  of 
that  amendment.  I  received  the  thanks  of  the  Senator  from  Illinois 
[Mr.  Logax]  and  the  thanks  of  the  Senator  from  Louisiana,  and  of  a 
gallant  Union  general  of  the  House  ;  and  that  is  the  cause  of  my  being 
at  present  on  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  of  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States.  I  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  as  an  American  Senator,  as  a 
patriot,  to  give  that  vote,  although  I  knew  that  a  hundred  thousand  of 
the  bravest  and  truest  men  who  ever  walked  the  earth,  my  comrades  in 
arms,  lay  buried  from  the  Potomac  to  the  Rio  Grande,  almost  without 
a  stone  to  mark  their  graves  from  the  common  dust.  When  did  the 
Senator  from  Indiana  manifest  more  constancy  to  the  Union  ?  But  let 
me  not  be  misunderstood.  I  did  not  think  that  I  dishonored  or  sullied 
the  memory  or  the  ashes  of  my  dead  comrades  by  that  deed.  If  I  had  I 
would  have  seen  the  stars  torn  from  their  beautiful  spheres  before  I 
would  have  consented  to  an  act  that  was  unjust  to  their  great  virtues 
and  character;  and  you  would  not  have  respected  me  if  I  had. 


Senators,  when  that  cause  expired  the  sold  iers  of  the  southern  ar- 
mies, following  the  example  of  their  great  leader,  laid  down  their 
arms  and  with  their  arms  their  hostilities  to  the  Union  forever. 
Never  were  truer  words  spoken  than  when  General  Grant  said  at  the 
close  of  the  war  just  after  the  surrender — I  read  from  his  report: 

General  Lee's  great  influence  throughout  the  whole  South  caused  his  example  to 
be  followed,  and  to-day  the  result  is  that  the  armies  lately  under  his  leadership  are 
at  their  homes,  desiring  peace  and  quiet,  and  their  arms  are  in  the  hands  ot  our 
ordnance  officers. 

There  is  the  testimony  of  a  soldier  and  of  your  President  to  the 
disposition  and  to  the  conduct  .of  southern  soldiers  after  the  war.  Let 
those  who  sometimes  throw  out  taunts  about  our  courage  see  what  he 
who  had  a  right  to  speak  said  about  us.  The  concluding  lines  of 
General  Grant's  report  are  as  follows : 

Let  them  hope — 

Meaning  the  northern  soldiers — 
for  perpetual  peace  and  harmony  with  that  enemy,  whose  manhood,  however  mis- 
taken the  cause,  drew  forth  sucli  herculean  deeds'  of  valor. 

The  swords  that  were  then  sheathed,  the  muskets  that  were  then 
grounded,  were  never  again  to  be  lifted  against  the  nation  ;  and,  fur- 
ther, I  must  say — God  forgive  me  if  I  am  wrong  in  saying  it — the 
swords  that  were  then  victorious,  the  bayonets  that  were  then  bright 
with  triumph,  should  never,  never  have  been  used  against  the  liber- 
ties of  those  who  had  laid  down  their  arms. 

Nor  can  I  furnish  any  better  evidence  of  the  condition  and  the  temper 
of  the  southern  people  after  the  war  than  this  extract  from  General 
Grant's  report,  made  upon  the  state  of  the  South  some  months  after 
the  surrender : 

I  am  satisfied  that  the  mass  of  thinking  men  of  the  South  accept  the  present 
situation  of  affairs  in  good  faith.  The  questions  which  have  heretofore  divided  the 
sentiment  of  the  people  of  the  two  sections — slavery  and  State  rights,  or  the  right 
of  a  State  to  secede  from  the  Union — they  regard  as  having  been  settled  forever  by 
the  highest  tribunal — arms — that  man  can  resort  to.  I  was  pleased  to  learn  from 
the  leading  men  whom  I  met  that  they  not  only  accepted  the  decision  arrived  at  as 
final,  but,  now  that  the  smoke  of  battle  has  cleared  away  and  time  has  been  given 
for  reflection,  that  this  decision  has  been  a  fortunate  one  for  the  whole  country, 
they  receiving  like  benefits  from  it  with  those  who  opposed  them  in  the  field  and  in 
the  council. 

My  observations  lead  me  to  the  conclusion  that  the  citizens  of  the  Southern 
States  are  anxious  to  return  to  self-government  within  the  Union  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible ;  that  while  reconstructing  they  want  and  require  protection  from  the  Gov- 
ernment ;  that  they  are  in  earnest  in  wishing  to  do  what  they  think  is  required,  by 
the  Government  not  humiliating  to  them  as  citizens,  and  that  if  such  a  course 
were  pointed  out  they  would  pursue  it  in  good  faith.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that 
there  cannot  be  a  greater  commingling  at  this  time  between  the  citizens  of  the 
two  sections,  and  particularly  of  those  intrusted  with  the  law-making  power. 

In  some  instances,  I  am  sorry  to  say.  the  freedman's  mind  does  not  seem  to  be 
disabused  of  the  idea  that  a  freedman  has  the  right  to  live  without  care  or  pro- 
vision for  the  future.  The  effect  of  the  belief  in  division  of  lands  is  idleness  and 
accumulation  in  camps,  towns,  and  cities.  In  such  cases  I  think  it  will  be  found 
that  vice  and  disease  will  tend  to  the  extermination  or  great  reduction  of  the  col- 
ored race.  It  cannot  be  expected  that  the  opinions  held  by  them  at  the  South  for 
years  can  be  changed  in  a  day,  and  therefore  the  freedmen  require  for  a  few  years 
not  only  laws  to  protect  them,  but  the  fostering  care  of  those  who  will  give  them 
good  counsel  and  on  whom  they  rely. 

In  these  words  of  General  Grant  will  be  found  a  conclusive  anawer 
to  many  of  the  accusations  that  are  now  brought  against  our  people. 

I  was  not  present  when  the  discussion  took  place  between  my 
friend  the  Senator  from  Georgia  [Mr.  Gordox]  and  the  distinguished 
Senator  from  Vermont,  [Mr.  Edmunds  ;]  I  did  not  hear  the  Senator 


10  # 

when  lie  alluded  to  the  name  of  General  Lee.  I  regret  that  I  did  not, 
and  for  a  very  different  reason  from  what  that  Senator  may  suppose. 
The  mention  of  that  name,  Mr.  President,  can  never  give  me  any- 
thing but  pleasure.  If  for  a  moment  at  any  time  in  this  debate  I 
had  lost  sight  of  my  duty;  if  I  had  permitted  personal  resentment 
and  sectional  passions  to  obscure  the  path  I  should  tread  ;  if  I  had 
forgotten  the  high  character  that  should  attach  to  a  Senator  of  my 
country,  let  me  assure  the  Senator  that  he  could  have  mentioned  no 
name  with  more  talismanic  power  to  bring  me  back  to  the  line  of 
my  own  and  my  country's  honor.  The  very  memory  of  the  name  of 
Lee  now  reminds  me  that  this  is  not  the  place  nor  the  time  to  vindi- 
cate a  life  that  has  passed  to  the  tribunal  of  history ;  but  I  will  say 
that  name  now  inspires  me  with  higher  and  purer  devotion  to  my 
country.  It  elevates  me  above  sectional  lines,  it  lifts  me  over  local 
and  temporary  prejudices,  it  animates  me  to  embrace  the  nation  in 
the  sentiment  of  patriotism,  and  it  commands  me  to  be  constant  in 
laboring  to  unite  the  American  people.  Far  from  feeling  any  morti- 
fication at  the  Senator's  allusion,  I  thank  him  for  presenting  to  my 
mind  an  image  of  transcendent  virtue,  which  can  never  cease  to  ex- 
cite my  highest  aspirations  for  excellence. 

Mr.  President,  there  was  not  a  soldier  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
who  did  not  render  to  that  grand  impersonation  of  courage,  dignity, 
virtue,  and  manly  and  Christian  grace  the  homage  of  a  soldier's 
respect.  It  was  my  fortune  at  Appomattox  Court  House  to  see  Gen- 
eral Lee  and  General  Grant  side  by  side.  That  scene  can  never  fade 
from  my  memory.  I  see  them  now  as  they  then  stood.  I  remember 
both — the  one  for  his  majestic  serenity  under  defeat,  the  other  for  his 
quiet  magnanimity  in  victory ;  qualities  which,  if  exercised  by  the 
American  people,  would  long  since  have  restored  every  heart  within 
its  limits  to  affection  for  the  Union. 

But,  what  is  there  in  the  condition  of  the  South  upon  which  a 
probable  or  possible  ground  for  the  charge  of  hostility  to  the  national 
authority  can  rest  ?  Where  is  the  motive  for  it  to  be  located  ?  What 
result  is  it  expected  to  accomplish  ?  With  what  reason  could  it  be 
presented  to  the  people  of  the  South?  Where  is  the  argument,  the 
inducement,  the  incitement  to  such  peril  ?  The  slaves  are  free,  and 
no  intelligent  human  being  at  the  South  would  see  them  return  to 
bondage.  Is  that  the  truth  ?  I  speak  it  here  to-day  when  the  clock  is  at 
sixteen  minutes  after  ten  in  the  face  of  the  American  Senate,  and  the 
people  from  the  Potomac  down  to  Mexico  will  read  it.  Their  rights 
to  citizenship  and  the  ballot  are  immutably  secured — fixed  as  firmly 
as  the  foundations  of  the  Government.  They  are  sacredly  and  invi- 
olately  intrenched  in  the  Constitution,  and  can  only  perish  with  Amer- 
ican liberty.  The  idea  of  secession  does  not  exist ;  it  expired  with 
the  war ;  it  is  buried,  and  for  it  there  is  no  resurrection.  The  Union 
is  established  permanently,  perpetually,  indissolubly,  and  nowhere  ■■ 
in  the  South  is  there  a  desire  that  it  should  be  impaired. 

Disunion  has  ceased  to  be  a  word  in  our  language ;  it  has  dissolved, 
it  has  vanished,  it  has  gone;  no  trace  of  it  is  left.  Until  I  heard  it  in 
this  debate  my  ear  has  not  caught  that  sound  since  the  roar  of  the 
cannon  was  hushed.  I  hope  never  to  hear  it-  again.  Its  echoes  will 
never  come  up  from  the  South.  I  pray  and  believe  that  it  is  obliter- 
ated, extinguished,  annihilated  forever.  What  possible,  conceivable 
interest  can  the  South  have  in  war  or  in  revolution  ?  I  hope  Senators 
will  put  that  question  to  themselves  and  as  reasonable  meu  ask 
what  interest  can  we  have  in  war  or  revolution.  What  has  the 
South  to  gain  ?    Nay,  what  has  she  not  to  lose  by  it  ?    Where  are  - 


11 

her  resources  for  the  conflict?  Have  Senators  reflected  that  more 
than  one-half  of  all  the  subsistence  now  consumed  by  the  South  is 
purchased  from  the  North  ?  There  is  not  meat  enough  in  the  South- 
ern States  to  feed  Lee's  army  sixty  days;  Where  are  the  prepara- 
tions and  provisions  for  war?  Is  not  our  whole  trade  conducted 
with  the  North  ?  We  have  no  direct  trade  with  Europe.  In  the 
event  of  civil  war — and,  Mr.  President,  you  have  considered  this  ques- 
tion well — what  would  become  of  our  cotton  crop,  the  great  and  only 
resource  of  the  South,  now  worth  over  $200,000,000  annually  ?  Shut 
up  by  blockade  within  our  lines,  it  would  be  valueless.  Where  would 
we  find  our  markets — from  whence  derive  our  supplies  ?  As  long  as 
we  are  at  peace  and  in  the  Union  we  have  friends  and  supporters  at 
the  North,  but  the  moment  we  lift  our  hands  against  the  Govern- 
ment or  bring  on  civil  war  we  know  that  the  whole  North  would  be 
united  to  crush  us.  Sir,  peace  is  the  only  safety  and  hope  of  the 
South.  War 'knows  no  laws,  and  if  we  were  again  madly  to  rush  to 
arms,  how  long  would  it  be  before  one-third  of  our  population  would 
be  armed  and  arrayed  against  us  and  our  wives  and  children  exposed 
to  the  dangers  of  savage  cruelty  ?  The  people  of  the  South  shrink  from 
civil  war  with  unutterable  horror.  They  would  regard  it  as  the 
direst  calamity  that  ever  cursed  a  people.  They  can  see  nothing  in 
it  but  imbittered  and  intenser  ruin.  They  desire,  they  seek,  they 
cultivate  peace  j  their  duty  is  peace,  their  prosperity  is  peace,  their 
honor  is  peace,  their  liberty  is  peace,  their  aspiration  is  peace;  and 
there  is  no  intelligent,  thoughtful  man  in  the  South  who  does  not 
comprehend  it. 

Senators  cannot  believe  seriously  what  they  say.  Danger  of  con- 
vulsion, revolution,  civil  war,  the  overthrow  of  the  Government !  If 
they  so  think,  let  me  assure  them  that  the  serious  business  men 
of  this  country  and  of  Europe  do  not  sympathize  in  their  panic.  If, 
these  fears,  these  dangers  were  real,  if  they  had  any  foundation,  I 
think  you  would  find  American  securities  tumbling  rapidly  down- 
ward. You  would  see  gold  advance  with  unprecedented  excitement. 
You  would  behold  the  merchants  and  manufacturers  and  traders  of 
the  North  rushing  wildly  to  the  South  to  gather  up  their  imperiled 
credits.  The  universal  repose  of  all  business  interests  in  this  coun- 
try, our  credit  at  home  and  in  foreign  countries,  the  habitual  com- 
munications of  trade  in  all  its  branches  between  the  North  and  South, 
all  refute  and  condemn  this  wild  cry  of  alarm.  I  arn  gratified  to  see 
that  the  panic  of  the  Senate  has  not  reached  Wall  street,  nor  Paris, 
nor  London,  nor  Berlin,  nor  the  thoughtful,  sober  business  men  of 
this  country.  For  once  the  politicians  are  more  sensitive  than  the  capi- 
talists. During  the  unhppy  conflict  betweena  the  sections  the 
Government  kept  constantly  in  the  field  to  meet  the  contending  forces 
of  the  South  over  a  half  million  soldiers  trained  to  war.  The 
shock  of  the  conflict  made  the  earth  tremble  and  now  we  see  the 
whole  people  of  the  South,  whose  forces  resisted  the  power  of  the 
Government  for  four  years,  kept  quiet  by  not  more  than  two  thousand 
men  distributed  over  half  the  country. 

Will  any  Senator  deny,  if  these  statements  were  true,  that  this 
people  who  are  so  shamefully  calumniated  as  abandoned,  desperate, 
and  fatally  hostile  to  the  Government  could  sweep  every  vestige  of 
Federal  authority  in  the  South  from  existence  in  a  month  ?  Is  not 
the  national  authority  maintained  in  absolute  supremacy  in  every 
part  of  the  Southern  States?  Is  not  the  presence  of  the  American 
flag  everywhere  respected?  Did  not  the  rebellion  of  Penn  in  Louisi- 
ana, bristling,  as  has  been  charged,  with  fiery  war,  retire  and  disarm 


12 

itself  upon  the  first  appearance  of  national  authority  ?  Where  is  the 
menace,  the  peril  to  the  nation's  peace  in  all  this  ?  What  kind  of 
opposition,  of  hostility,  of  clanger  to  the  Government  and  the  laws 
of  the  country  is  that  which  now  for  ten  years  has  not  once  raised 
its  voice  or  lifted  its  hand  against  their  authority  f  Will  Senators 
tell  me  what  interest  the  southern  people  can  have  in  separation 
from  the  North  or  in  the  disturbance  and  upheaval  of  the  Government, 
that  they  should  contemplate  these  results  ?  That  fatal  effort  has 
cost  us  the  loss  of  untold  millions,  the  lives  of  our  best  sons,  years  of 
anguish  and  suffering,  and  now  casts  dark  shadows  far,  far  into  the 
future.  Is  it  supposed  that  we  are  blind,  stupid,  infatuated  enough  to 
fancy  that  we  can  consummate  by  subtle  and  insidious  subterfuges,  by 
secret  and  occult  societies,  by  unlawful,  skulking  combinations,  by 
expert  and  hateful  wiles,  what  we  signally  failed  to  accomplish  by  a 
common,  united,  determined,  manly  struggle  of  all  our  people  when 
we  had  faith  and  invoked  the  blessing  of  God  upon  our  arms  ? 

Do  Senators  know  so  little  of  the  character  of  the  southern  people 
as  to  imagine  that  they  surrendered  their  armies  and  submitted  to 
the  nation's  power  until  they  exhausted  every  resource,  gave  up 
every  hope,  and  abandoned  every  purpose  of  resistance  ?  Can  any 
one  believe  that  that  proud,  brave,  generous  people,  capable  of  every 
manly  and  honorable  sacrifice,  cherishing  the  jewel  of  their  honor 
with  more  than  eastern  idolatry,  now,  when  they  have  nothing  left  but 
its  unstained  sentiment,  would  ever  consent  to  sully  and  tarnish  for 
the  gratification  of  base  prejudices,  of  unjust  resentments,  of  cruel 
hatreds,  the  name  they  have  kept  so  bright!  They  know  little,  they 
know  nothing  of  our  proud  manhood,  who  can  think  that  the  South, 
would  surrender  its  inheritance  of  valor,  truth,  and  uncalculating  honor 
to  any  consideration,  to  any  passion  beneath  it.  When  they  returned 
to  the  Union,  when  they  renewed  their  loyalty  to  the  Government, 
they  embraced  it  as  a  duty  and  nobly  conceived  that  their  highest 
glory  lay  in  maintaining  their  faith  without  a  blemish.  But,  thank 
Heaven,  to  prove  their  truth  to  this  faith  they  have  not,  they  never 
can  think  it  necessary,  they  can  never  think  it  right  to  disown,  to 
repudiate,  to  dishonor  the  principles  that  once  animated  their  hearts. 
Upon  the  altars  of  their  country,  for  peace  and  with  the  hope  of  lib- 
erty, they  have  burned  their  passions,  their  prejudices,  their  policies ; 
but  their  sacred  memories,  their  hallowed  affections,  their  holy  duties 
to  their  past,  they  still  cherish  with  increased  devotion. 

Mr.  President,  what  interest  has  the  South  in  further  disturbance, 
hostility,  agitation  ?  Do  not  the  great  rivers  of  commerce  flow 
through  both  sections  ?  They  cannot  be  divided.  Do  not  the  great 
railway  lines  bind  us  in  links  of  iron  and  bonds  of  interest  together  ? 
Do  we  not  hope  to  see  the  rich  streams  of  your  wealth  flow  down  to  our 
beautiful  but  desolated  fields  ?  Do  we  not  desire  your  support  and 
defense  against  foreign  dangers  ?  Do  we  not  ardently,  prayerfully 
desire  harmony,  peace,  fraternal  peace,  with  you  as  neighbors  and  as 
brothers  ?  Can  you  think  after  fifteen  years  of  war,  suffering,  agony, 
and  torture  the  South  does  not  long  for  repose,  tranquillity,  and  the 
subsidence  of  the  bitter  waters  of  strife  ?  Let  the  last  messenger 
from  that  sad  ark  bring  back  to  us  the  green  leaves  of  hope. 

Is  it  not  enough  for  atonement,  is  it  not  enough  for  all  ends,  that 
we  have  surrendered  to  necessities  $3,000,000,000  in  slave  property, 
that  we  have  lost  $3,000,000,000  more  in  other  values  ?  These  are  not 
my  estimates.  They  are  the  estimates  of  the  committee  which  in  1872 
went  to  the  Southern  States  to  inquire  into  their  condition.  Is  it  not 
enough  that  our  recent  slaves  are  now  our  political  equals ;  that  we 


13 

have  been  "steeped  in  poverty  to  the  very  lips;"  that  our  "utmost 
hopes  have  been  given  to  captivity ; "  that  we  have  been  tried  with 
every  affliction ;  that  our  bosoms  are  brimful  of  sorrow  ?  And  still  we 
have  found  in  our  souls  some  drops  of  patience.  What  greater  sacri- 
fice is  required?  I  know  of  none  other  that  we  can  make,  unless  it  be 
base  and  abject  submission  to  unlawful  power  and  the  confession  be- 
fore mankind  that  we  are  unworthy  the  name  of  men,  and  are  ready 
to  kiss  the  rod  and  the  feet  that  smite  and  oppress  us.  Senators,  this 
can  never  be.  We  cannot,  we  will  not  do  this,  We  will  not  consent 
to  our  own  degradation — never,  never.  We  would  be  unworthy  asso- 
ciates, we  would  not  be  fit  to  breathe  the  free  air  of  a  republic,  if  we 
would  consent  to  it;  and  there  is  not  an  honest  man  or  a  good  woman 
under  the  sun  who  would  respect  us  for  a  moment  if  we  could  consent 
to  it. 

Will  you  penetrate  our  hearts,  and  undertake  to  eradicate  from 
them  the  sentiments  and  feelings  of  education  and  association  ?  Will 
you  thrust  your  hands  into  our  bosoms,  and  tear  from  them  the  images 
impressed  there  by  our  fathers  and  our  mothers  ?  Will  you  enter  the 
chambers  of  the  mind,  to  uproot  its  convictions  and  strike  from  its 
tablets  the  very  memory  of  long-cherished  opinions  ?  No,  Senators, 
this  must  be  the  work  of  time,  the  slow  process  of  experience.  The 
human  head  and  heart  are  not  material ;  you  cannot  change  them 
as  you  do  the  grounds  and  the  scenery  around  the  Capitol.  God  has 
planted  in  them  his  laws  of  truth  and  duty,  and  they  can  be  erased 
only  by  reason  and  time.  Do  not  drive  the  South  to  the  terrible 
alternative  of  despotism  or  anarchy.  Do  not  present  that  deadly 
dilemma,  with  its  double  ruin,  to  our  people — 

Which  way  I  turn  is  hell — 

And  in  the  lowest  deep  a  lower  deep  still 
Threatening  to  devour  me,  opens  wide 
To  which  the  hell  I  suffer  seems  a  heaven. 

How  long  can  the  North  survive  the  slavery  and  ruin  of  the  South  ? 
This  country  cannot  endure  with  one-half  of  its  limbs  and  body 
paralyzed  and  decaying.  The  genius  of  ancient  Greece  was  taxed  to 
invent  the  most  cruel  and  appropriate  punishment  for  the  murderer 
who  had  slain  his  own  brother.  The  unhappy  felon  was  doomed  to 
have  the  dead  body  of  his  victim  chained  to  his  own  living  limbs  and 
to  carry  the  frightful  burden  wherever  he  moved.  The  penalty  was 
greater  than  the  crime.  The  wretched  and  accursed  fratricide  found 
relief  only  in  death  by  contagion  from  the  mortified  corpse  to 
which  he  was  fastened.  And  such  would  be  the  fate,  the  just  fate,  of 
the  Northern  States  if  they  should  persist  in  the  unnatural  and  unhal- 
lowed work  of  crushing  out  the  liberties  of  the  South  and  extinguish- 
ing her  yet  vital  sparks.  The  yoke  that  oppresses  our  necks  will 
extend  its  mortal  fetters  around  your  proud  steps  and  bring  down 
both  to  a  common  grave  if  not  a  common  infamy. 

I  shall  not  follow  some  examples  that  have  been  set  me  in  this 
debate.  I  cannot  consent  to  place  the  defense  of  the  South  upon 
the  defects  or  misfortunes  of  other  sections  of  the  country.  I  must 
put  her  defense  and  her  honor  upon  higher  ground.  Whenever  I 
feel  that  I  am  obliged  to  defend  the  South  by  priminating  and  recrim- 
inating the  North,  I  shall  retire  from  this  Chamber,  and  ask  the 
proud  State  that  I  represent  to  send  another  here  to  do  that  work.4 

Nor  shall  I  deem  it  any  part  of  my  duty  here,  of  my  duty  any- 
where, to  ransack  the  sources  of  unjust  misrepresentation  to  give 
them  the  appearance  of  respectability  by  their  development  on  the 


14 

floor  of  the  Senate ;  nor  shall  I  at  any  time  feel  at  liberty  to  go  into 
the  proud  States  of  this  Union  to  see  if,  -with  envious  or  malignant  eye, 
I  cannot  find  something  that  shall  blacken  their  bright  names  or 
mortify  their  just  pride.  Nor,  sir,  shoixld  I  feel  altogether  justified 
in  constructing  an  argument  to  be  listened  to  by  the  American  Sen- 
ate and  read  by  the  American  people  composed  of  extracts  taken 
here  and  there  from  the  heated  furnace  of  journalism.  Nor  should  I 
consider  that  I  served  my  country  when  I  undertook  to  enlighten  her 
counsels  or  direct  her  legislation  by  the  uncertain  and  unsteady  light 
that  I  had  collected  up  from  the  passionate  expressions,  the  intem- 
perate sentences,  the  inconsiderate  words  of  a  few  rash  men  scattered 
over  the  extent  of  half  a  continent ;  and  least  of  all  should  I  think  or 
feel  that  I  did  justice  to  my  country's  history  or  reflected  honor  on 
her  character  or  credit  on  my  own  name  by  going  back  over  the  rec- 
ords of  her  people  or  of  her  States,  in  whatever  section  they  may  be, 
to  drag  from  their  resting-places  the  errors  or  the  follies  of  the  past. 
No,  sir ;  I  shall  not  descend  into  the  grave  to  see  if  I  cannot  bring  to 
light  from  the  tomb  of  the  dead  past  something  that  may  gratify 
malignant  and  insatiate  passions.  I  shall  shun  that  cowardly  instinct 
of  the  hateful  beast  that  finds  its  subsistence  in  the  buried  remains  of 
nobler  creatures  and  delights  to  feed  on  the  dead  forms  it  feared  and 
shrank  from  while  living.  If  my  purpose  was  to  destroy  the  fame 
of  the  American  Eepublic  ;  if  I  desired  to  diminish  and  circumscribe 
her  beneficent  influences  all  over  the  world ;  if  I  hoped  to  plant  per- 
petual discord  between  her  great  sections ;  if  my  aim  was  to  engage 
her  statesmen  and  patriots  in  endless  and  bitter  strife,  such  is  the 
course  I  should  adopt.  I  desire  no  such  work.  It  is  not  consistent 
with  any  principle  of  my  life  to  devote  the  time  and  ability  of  a  Sen- 
ator to  the  unprofitable  and  uncommendable  task  of  discovering  and 
exposing  the  faults  and  the  vices  of  any  sister  State  of  this  Union. 
I  shall  be  content  to  believe  that  in  the  intense  light  of  our  civiliza- 
tion the  people  of  each  State  can  take  best  care  of  its  own  domestic 
affairs  in  the  way  that  to  them  seems  right  and  proper.  I  shall  not, 
sir,  come  down  to  the  language  of  aspersion  against  the  character  of 
any  State  or  the  character  of  her  people.  I  have  no  ambition  to 
prove  that  any  one  of  the  States  has  less  title  than  another  to  the 
respect  and  admiration  of  the  American  people.  I  desire  to  see  all 
of  them  great,  good,  and  happy.  If  I  behold  any  of  her  sister  States 
advancing  with  grander  strides  and  exhibiting  more  enterprise,  virtue, 
or  patriotism  than  North  Carolina,  I  shall  hold  up  that  State  as  an 
example  to  our  own  people,  and  commend  for  their  imitation  her  vir- 
tues and  her  glory.  I  shall  not  endeavor  to  detract  one  laurel  from 
her  brow  or  cast  a  shadow  on  the  excellence  of  her  character.  I 
shall  claim  a  part  of  her  glory  as  my  own,  as  a  common  renown  in 
which  every  American  has  a  share.  If  I  shall  unhappily  see  any  State 
depressed,  downcast,  and  wandering  away  from '  the  orbit  of  her 
usefulness  and  dignity,  far,  far  be  it  from  me  or  mine  to  strike,  to 
wound,  to  humiliate  her  ;  but  her  adversities  shall  excite  my  kindest 
consideration,  and  I  will  endeavor  to  support  and  strengthen  her,  and 
employ  all  constitutional  means  to  restore  her  to  health,  prosperity, 
and  honor. 

What,  sir,  is  the  meaning  of  "  sister  States  ?  "  Is  it  an  empty  sound  ? 
Is  it  an  epithet  of  irony  ?  The  Greeks,  by  a  strange  figure  of  speech, 
called  the  "  Furies  "  Eumenides — the  "  Gracious."  Are  we  to  copy 
the  fiction  of  their  language  into  reality,  and  convert  the  "  sister 
States '?  into  the  "  States  of  Discord."  In  the  name  of  a  common 
country  and  by  the  sanctities  of  a  common  suffering,  I  protest  against 


15 

this  family  war.  Cannot  the  States  be  indeed  sisters  in  the  full  sense 
of  that  sacred  word ;  sisters  in  interest,  sympathy,  affection,  and  duty, 
giving  one  to  all  and  all  to  one  support,  assistance,  and  mutual  confi- 
dence ?  In  an  unhappy  hour  they  were  torn  apart  and  divided,  and 
now  after  years  of  war  and  sorrow  shall  they  not  be  again  united  in 
peace  forever  ?  Heaven  forbid  that  discord  should  relight  her  con- 
suming fires  in  their  bosoms. 

The  honorable  Senator  from  New  York,  who  has  discussed  the  pend- 
ing question  with  his  usual  ability — and  he  always  contributes  to  any 
subject  the  light  of  uncommon  learning  and  the  interest  of  a  master's 
style — has  discovered  the  secrets  of  all  the  troubles  in  the  Southern 
States,  has  found  the  key  that  unlocks  the  hidden  mysteries  to  what- 
ever of  lawlessness  prevails  in  that  unhappy  section.  Most  earnestly 
the  Senator  informs  us  that  opposition  to  negro  suffrage,  to  colored 
citizenship,  to  manhood  rights  under  the  Constitution  is  the  one  cause 
for  whatever  is  to  be  found  in  the  South  of  aberration  from  the  path 
of  peace  and  law.  Mr.  President,  has  not  the  Senator  confounded  cause 
with  effect?  If  the  Senator's  vision,  usually  so  acute,  had  looked  quite 
through  the  question,  must  he  not  have  seen  that  negro  suffrage,  ne- 
gro citizenship,  and  not  opposition  to  these  principles,  was  the  cause 
of  the  anomalies  at  the  South  ?  Does  the  honorable  Senator  see  no 
cause  for  unusual  disturbance  in  the  political  elements  from  the  fact 
that  four  millions  of  ignorant,  uneducated,  untrained  people,  totally 
unaccustomed  to  any  self-government  and  utterly  incapable  of  com- 
prehending the  principles  or  appreciating  the  duties  that  attach  to 
this  great  function,  have  been  suddenly  invested  with  more  than  the 
balance  of  power  in  the  Southern  States  ?  Does  the  Senator  find  in 
this  ascendant  fact  no  cause,  no  sufficient  cause,  for  convulsion  and 
upheaval  in  the  political  systems  of  the  South  ?  Does  the  intelligent 
Senator  suppose  that  this  unparalleled  transformation  could  take 
place  without  producing  shocks  to  the  harmony  of  our  polity  ?  Is 
human  government  in  the  opinion  of  the  Senator  so  unlike  everything 
in  the  material  universe  that  this  vast  and  unwieldy  mass  of  blind 
power  could  be  instantly  thrown  on  its  wheels  and  not  revers'e  or 
destroy  their  revolutions  ?  If  the  Indian  Ocean  should  be  suddenly 
emptied  into  the  Atlantic,  boundless  as  are  its  capacities,  the  immense 
accession  could  not  be  withstood,  and  a  tidal  wave  would  in  all  prob- 
ability submerge  a  continent.  Elastic  and  vital  as  is  the  circumam- 
bient air,  the  sudden  passage  of  a  colder  or  a  more  heated  current 
produces  tornadoes  and  simooms  that  sweep  over  a  hemisphere. 

Is  human  government  here  in  the  American  Eepublic  superior  to 
all  laws  of  cause  and  effect,  and  are  its  genius  and  energy  equal  to  any 
strain  that  may  be  placed  upon  it  ?  The  accession  of  a  new  planet 
in  the  measureless  heavens  would  make  the  very  suns  tremble  and 
stagger  in  their  spheres ;  and  yet  the  honorable  Senator,  with  his 
acute  and  sensitive  observation,  can  discover  in  the  disorder  of  the 
southern  planets  no  influence  of  that  foreign  body  which  counter- 
balances their  established  order  and  disarranges  all  the  laws  of  their 
being.  He  would  not  be  reckoned  a  faithful  astronomer  who,  watch- 
ing the  heavens,  should  behold  the  beautiful  constellation  of  the 
Southern  Cross  eclipsed  by  some  "burning  comet"  of  " pestilence  and 
war,"  and  then  should  hold  up  his  hands  in  holy  horror  and  exclaim 
against  the  malignant  influence  of  the  stars.  Sir,  the  Senator  ad- 
vances yet  a  step  further  in  this  line  of  his  argument,  and  declares 
that  so  desperate  and  extreme  was  the  hostility  to  the  constitutional 
rights  of  the  colored  man,  his  enemies  resolved  that  the  recon- 
struction acts  and  the  constitutional  amendments  embodying  their 


16 

rights  should  be  a  failure,  even  at  the  point  of  producing  a  revolu- 
tion at  the  South  and  overwhelming  law,  order,  peace,  liberty,  and 
everything  valuable  in  its  ruins.  It  may  be  true,  Mr.  President,  that 
the  wrongs  inflicted  on  the  South  were  cruel  enough  to  suggest  to 
the  Senator's  mind  the  image  of  the  blind  giant,  seizing  the  pillars  of 
the  temple  and  burying  the  oppressor  and  the  oppressed  in  a  common 
calamity.  But  let  me  assure  the  Senator  that  the  people  of  the  South 
have  too  clear  a  conception  of  their  duty,  too  deep  a  sense  of  their 
obligation  to  the  age  and  the  country,  and  a  too  abiding  hope  in  the 
ultimate  triumph  of  justice,  to  have  blindly  despaired  of  the  return 
of  reason  and  madly  rushed  to  their  own  destruction  and  infamy, 
in  order  to  defeat  a  policy  which,  if  successful,  whatever  motives 
prompted  its  adoption  or  whatever  their  opinions  of  its  justice  or  wis- 
dom, would  result  in  their  political  ascendency  and  the  physical 
regeneration  of  their  country. 

Let  me  assure  the  Senator  that  he  has  yet  much  to  learn  of  south 
ern  character  if  he  for  one  moment  imagines  that  under  the  im- 
pression of  passion  or  delusion  they  would  imperil  their  lives  and 
honor  and  the  happiness  and  safety  of  their  wives  and  children 
to  revenge  a  fancied  wrong,  to  mitigate  a  temporary  evil,  or  to  grat- 
ify a  prejudice  and  resentment.  In  all  candor  let  me  ask  the  dis- 
tinguished Senator  if  he  really  believes  that  the  people  of  the  South 
were  so  opposed,  so  hostile,  so  antagonistic  to  negro  suffrage  and  cit- 
izenship as  to  commit  suicide  to  defeat  its  success,  as  to  annihilate 
everything  of  worth  to  accomplish  its  failure.  I  say  I  ask  the  Sen- 
ator, if  he  so  believes,  does  he  think  it  quite  right,  quite  just,  quite 
patriotic,  to  have  imposed  on  a  brave  and  generous  people  a  bur- 
den that  they  would  surrender  their  lives  and  all  that  is  dearer  than 
life  sooner  than  bear  ?  Does  the  Senator  think  that  such  a  sacrifice 
of  the  white  people  of  the  South  would  have  been  right  ?  I  cannot 
believe  he  does. 

Let  me  inform  the  Senator  that  the  proposition  to  bestow  suffrage 
and  citizenship  upon  four  millions  of  human  beings  just  emerging 
front  slavery,  and  known  ^to  possess  not  the  first  qualification  or 
requisite  for  the  proper  discharge  of  that  highest  power,  did  shock 
the  moral  sense  and  the  patriotic  emotion  of  the  southern  people  to 
their  deepest  foundations.  They  could  not  realize  the  fact  that  the 
intelligent,  virtuous,  and  patriotic  peojile  of  the  North  could  in- 
trust the  sacred  responsibilities  of  the  ballot  and  the  higher  duties 
of  popular  rulers  to  a  class  of  persons,  who  no  one  was  found  insane 
enough  to  believe  were  in  any  sense  fitted  for  the  exercise  of  these 
inestimable  rights  and  privileges. 

The  southern  people  were  appalled  at  the  danger  which,  like  some 
mighty  avalanche,  was  thus  in  a  moment  suspended  over  their  rights, 
their  social  happiness,  and  their  liberties.  They  with  all  sincerity 
regarded  it  as  the  most  perilous  experiment  ever  attempted  at  any 
time  by  a  civilized  people  not  entirely  dissolved  from  all  moral  alle- 
giance to  the  opinion  of  mankind.  But,  sir,  they  never  proposed,, 
they  never  conceived  the  supreme  madness  of  attempting  to  avert  these 
threatened  and  probable  evils  by  the  certain  and  purposed  destruction 
by  their  own  hands  of  all  the  muniments  of  law,  society,  civilization, 
and  freedom.  No;  the  South  never  looked  to  anarchy  or  chaos  as 
their  desperate  deliverance  from  negro  supremacy.  They  feared  too 
deeply  that  these  terrible  curses  would  be  the  result  of  that  l'eckless 
experiment.  They  never  dreamed  of  precipitating  that  awful  crisis. 
On  the  contrary  they  determined  with  the  most  patriotic  fidelity  to 
stand  by  the  covenants  of  a  constitution  which  had  been  imposed  by 


17 

power  upon  them,  and  to  give  the  new  departures  from  the  great 
original  the  fairest  trial  and  the  most  favorable  test  which  the  life  of 
the  country  could  bear.  They  saw  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
amendments  intrenched,  imbedded,  incorporated  in  the  body  and  very 
life  of  the  Constitution.  They  saw  no  possibility  of  any  reversal  of 
the  popular  judgment  thus  embodied  in  the  organic  law  of  the  Repub- 
lic. And  in  perfect  good  faith  the  people  of  the  South  resolved  to 
make  the  best  of  their  situation  and  to  do  everything  in  their  power 
to  carry  into  proper  effect  and  enforcement  the  laws  of  the  country. 
They  determined  to  respect  the  rights  of  the  black  man,  to  cultivate 
his  friendship,  to  conciliate  his  confidence,  to  promote  his  welfare,  to 
elevate  him  by  education,  by  counsel,  by  example,  and  by  counte- 
nance and  support  up  to  the  high  duties  of  an  American  citizen.  This 
was  the  general  sentiment,  wish,  and  purpose  of  the  southern  people 
after  the  reconstruction  of  the  States.  The  history  of  that  period 
attests  its  truth;  it  is  illustrated  in  the  acts  of  State  Legislatures, 
the  resolves  of  popular  assemblies,  and  the  common  expression  of  the 
people  and  the  press. 

I  regret  to  say  what  was  the  fate  of  this  sincere  and  honest  effort 
on  the  part  of  southern  whites  to  live  in  political  peace  and  prosper- 
ity with  the  colored  race.  Our  offerings  were  spurned,  our  tenders 
mocked,  our  generosity  ridiculed,  and  every  effort  we  made,  every  word 
we  spoke  only  united,  intensified,  exasperated  the  great  body  of  col- 
ored voters  yet  more  against  us.  This  was  not  the  fault  of  the  negro, 
and  the  southern  people  have  been  too  generous  to  charge  him  with 
it.  The  sin  of  its  failure  lies  at  the  feet  of  those  who  for  mercenary 
ends  arrayed  him,  to  the  common  iujury  of  both,  against  the  white  man. 
We  still  labor,  we  still  hope,  we  still  faithfully  strive  to  conquer 
his  prejudices  and  convince  him  that  we  do  not  intend  to  destroy 
his  rights  or  impair  his  happiness.  But,  while  this  has  been  our 
course — sincere,  faithful,  and  determined — pursued  with  fidelity  but 
not  with  confidence,  let  me  say  to  the  honorable  Senator  from  New 
York  that  hatred  of  suffrage  and  equal  rights  of  black  men  has  not 
ruled  the  hour.  We  have  no  "  unquenched  resentment  and  preju- 
dice," but  we  all  have  iH  our  hearts  kindly,  anxious  solicitude,  deep 
concern,  and  a  Christian  humanity  for  the  black  man. 

Sir,  we  have  no  prejudice  of  race,  but  we  have  a  sentiment  born 
with  us,  coeval  with  human  creation,  running  through  every  age  and 
felt  in  every  clime — a  sentiment  as  ineradicable  as  life,  as  inexorable  as 
fact,  as  permanent  as  nature,  as  strong  as  the  attraction  of  gravity, 
as  invincible  and  irrepressible  as  the  flow  of  the  tides  or  the  revolu- 
tion of  the  seasons — that  the  white  race  is  the  leading,  progressive, 
dominant  race  upon  the  earth.  This  is  not  prejudice  of  race.  It  is 
pride  of  race,  character  of  race,  dignity  of  race.  It  is  not  an  unjust 
and  arbitrary  habit  of  the  mind  or  the  heart ;  it  is  an  honorable  con- 
viction, founded  in  the  experience  of  mankind  from  the  beginning, 
and  always  maintained  in  every  stage  of  human  history.  Not  to  ad- 
mit it  is  to  convict  this  nation  of  the  grossest  wrong  and  cruelty  ever 
exercised  in  its  treatment  of  the  Indian  tribes.  Any  other  theory 
would  make  our  forefathers  ruthless  robbers  and  their  descendants 
the  bloody  successors  to  their  crimes.     Sir,  I  deny  that  this  is  so. 

I  say  no  man  can  read  the  world's  history — no  man  can  take  up 
the  map  of  the  habitable  globe  to-day  and  fail  to  see  the  proof  of 
this  assertion.  Look  at  the  atlas  of  all  the  States  and  peoples  upon 
the  earth  ;  run  your  eye  back  along  down  the  long  vistas  of  all  the 
generations  that  have  gone  before  us ;  consider  the  Assyrian,  the  Bab- 
ylonian, the  Greek,  the  Roman,  the  English,  the  French,  the  German, 

2  R 


18 

and  all  the  people  who  are  known  in  history  ;  consider  well  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth  and  all  the  races  of  men,  and  tell  me  if  you  find 
civilization,  art,  science,  enlightened  government,  happy  society,  law, 
order,  progress,  or  true  humanity  among  any  but  the  white  race.  The 
Persians  were  white,  the  Greeks  were  white,  the  Romans  were  white, 
their  conquerors  were  white,  the  Britons,  the  Savons,  the  Normans, 
the  Swiss,  the  Germans,  the  Russians,  the  Franks,  the  Northmen  of 
Europe,  were  all  white.  Demosthenes,  Cicero,  Alexander,  Caesar,  Co- 
lumbus, Bacon,  Shakespeare,  Napoleon,  Washington,  Fulton,  and 
Morse ;  the  great  scholars,  the  great  captains,  the  great  poets,  the  great 
orators,  the  painters,  the  sculptors,  the  inventors  to  whom  we  are  in- 
debted for  steam  and  the  telegraph ;  the  great  patriots,  the  great 
philosophers,  the  great  characters  of  the  Bible,  the  children  of  Israel, 
and  also  the  conquerors  of  the  earth,  the  philosophers,  the  benefac- 
tors, the  masters  of  law,  the  masters  of  medicine,  the  constructors  of 
human  languages,  the  framers  of  good  government,  in  every  age  and 
period  of  human  life  have  belonged  to  the  white  race. 

With  these  lights  before  us  was  it  the  "  prejudice  of  race,"  the 
hatred,  the  unquenched  resentment  against  the  negro  that  inspired 
us  ?  No,  sir ;  but  we  could  not  eradicate  our  convictions,  we  could 
not  falsify  history,  we  could  not  surrender  all  that  was  high  and 
noble  and  valuable  to  the  mad  idea  of  negro  supremacy  in  the 
South.  The  descendants  of  Locke,  Milton,  and  Hampden;  the  coun- 
trymen of  Washington,  Webster,  and  Story;  the  proud  sons  of  fathers 
and  mothers  who  had  cherished  and  preserved  liberty  and  law  and 
honor  with  their  lives  and  with  every  sacrifice  for  hundreds  of  years 
could  not  surrender  all  the  heritages  and  the  memories  and  the 
lessons  of  their  own  race,  and  look  to  the  dark  land  of  the  sun  for 
their  rulers  and  exemplars.  They  saw  Europe,  the  country  of  white 
men,  radiant  with  civilization  and  learning  and  beauty.  They  saw 
America,  his  home  in  the  New  World,  bright  with  liberty,  prog- 
ress, and  Christian  glory ;  and  they  could  but  see  Africa  in  its  dark 
and  arid  night,  unbroken  in  successive  barbarism  and  ignorance,  and 
all  the  rays  of  civilization  for  five  hundred  years  battling  around  its 
coasts  and  notable  to  penetrate  its  dense  and  deathly  deserts  a  mile 
from  the  shore.  Could  we  hesitate,  ought  we  to  have  hesitated 
about  our  duty  ? 

We  resolved  to  be  just,  to  be  kiud,  to  be  humane  to  the  black  man, 
to  respect  his  equal  rights  before  the  law,  to  give  him  every  oppor- 
tunity for  improvement  and  advancement ;  but  never,  never  to  give 
up  to  him  the  proud  inheritances  of  our  race,  the  love  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty,  the  administration  of  justice,  the  lights  of  knowl- 
edge, the  virtues  of  our  fathers,  and  all  the  inestimable  blessings  of  a 
Christian  civilization.  Far  from  incurring  your  censure  for  this, we  are 
entitled  to  your  commendation.  In  your  mistaken  policy  of  recon- 
struction you  struck  down  the  white  race  and  you  exalted  the  black. 
In  your  amendments  to  the  Constitution  there  are  no  discrimi- 
nations against  the  black  man,  but  there  were  and  are  cruel  exclu- 
sions, impediments,  disabilities  on  the  white  man.  You  disqualified 
from  holding  office,  and  voting  too,  during  the  progress  of  reconstruc- 
tion every  man  in  the  South  who  having  ever  held  any  public  office 
of  trust  and  honor  had  aided  the  rebellion.  This  disabling  clause  in- 
cluded all  the  experienced,  trusted,  able  men  of  the  South  who  had 
administered  her  governments.  It  left  the  government  of  that 
country  in  the  hands  of  the  inexperienced,  embarrassed  as  they  must 
be  with  the  difficult  element  of  negro  suffrage,  misled  by  designing 
and  corrupt  men.     See  what  immense  power  you  placed  in  the  hands 


19 

of  four  millions  of  blacks  in  the  Southern  States.  Is  there  any  pre- 
cedent or  parallel  to  it  in  the  annals  of  human  government  ?  It  is 
the  first,  the  only  time  in  the  history  of  the  human  family  that  slaves 
have  been  made  the  political  rulers  of  their  former  masters.  Sena- 
tors, when  you  put  the  chains  and  fetters  of  your  disabling  clause 
upon  the  white  men  of  the  South  and  excluded  them  from  participa- 
tion in  the  Government  and  invested  the  black  man  with  all  the 
rights  and  powers  and  privileges  of  the  citizen  unimpaired,  did  you 
not  commit  an  act  of  cruel  proscription  against  the  white  people  of 
the  South  ?  You  bound  the  southern  people  in  inexorable  contact 
and  collision  with  blind,  untrained  negro  suffrage.  You  lashed  Ma- 
zeppa  hand  and  foot  to  the  wild  steed  of  the  desert,  and  left  rider 
and  horse  to  the  vultures  who  pursued  their  ruin. 

It  is  true  we  had  fought  you  boldly  and  bravely ;  but  the  war  was 
over;  we  had  made  peace;  we  wished  to  be  brothers  again.  And  now 
I  ask  if  there  was  any  just  reason  that  the  negroes  of  the  South, 
whom  your  fathers  no  less  than  mine  had  made  slaves,  who  had  con- 
tributed nothing  to  the  discovery  and  conquest  of  this  continent,  who 
had  given  no  aid  in  the  establishment  of  our  liberties,  who  had  ex- 
hibited no  capacity  for  civil  government  or  for  social  order,  and  who 
had  none  of  the  qualifications  of  education  or  experience  for  self- 
administration — I  ask  you  if  there  was  any  just  reason  that  these 
people  should  be  given  political  supremacy,  political  advantage,  po- 
litical rank  over  a  proscribed  people  who  for  eighty  years  had  been 
your  brothers,  whose  fathers  had  fought  with  yours  at  Bunker  Hill, 
Yorktown,  and  New  Orleans,  and  who  could  array  against  four  years 
of  civil  war,  against  four  years  of  alienation,  four  generations  of  pa- 
triotic, unselfish,  illustrious  devotion  to  the  nation,  its  liberties  and 
its  glory  ? 

Yet,  Senators,  here  to-day,  in  the  face  of  all  that  may  be  said  about 
these  four  years  of  hostile  and  confronting  war  by  men  threatening 
disunion,  men  trying  to  tear  down  the  Government,  by  men  shedding 
oceans  of  blood,  I  present  to  you  eighty  years  of  our  devotion  to  the 
country.  I  show  you  these  houses  builded  by  our  fathers.  I  walk 
this  Capitol,  and  as  I  enter  the  Eotunda  I  see  four  pictures  illustrating 
southern  history.  As  I  go  out  upon  the  eastern  square  of  the  Capitol 
I  see  the  statue  to  the  Father  of  his  Country,  with  that  immortal  in- 
scription— 

Istud  simulacrum 
Ad  magnum  exemplum  libertatis 
Nee  sine  ipsa  duratuium. 

As  I  go  to  my  home  and  pass  down  the  Potomac  the  toll  of  the 
bell  tells  me  that  there  sleeps  Washington,  a  southern  man.  As  I 
go  by  way  of  Baltimore  aud  down  to  Fortress  Monroe,  I  see  the 
Ripraps,  the  work  of  Calhoun.  Though  his  name  has  been  stricken 
from  the  fort  he  projected,  I  tell  you,  you  can  never  tear  it  from  the 
pages  of  American  history.  As  long  as  those  stones  he  planted  there 
beat  back  the  waves  to  the  sea,  the  morning  gun  and  the  twilight 
cannon  will  echo  that  name  ;  and  there  is  not  a  gallant  tar  on  the 
proud  decks  of  your  Navy  who,  as  long  as  he  respects  and  loves  free 
trade  and  sailors'  rights,  will  not  remember  the  name  and  honor  the 
patriot  who  defended  them  in  this  Chamber  and  the  other  end  of  the 
Capitol. 

I  repeat  again,  I  would  impair  no  right  of  the  colored  mau.  I 
would  protect  him  faithfully  in  every  right  secured  to  him  by  the 
Constitution,  and  especially  by  the  thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and 
fifteenth  amendments.     I  would  protect  him  in  his  liberty,  his  citi- 


20 

zenship,  his  right  to  vote.  I  would  go  further,  and  educate  hini  and 
elevate  him  to  the  high  position  of  all  the  duties  and  capacities  of 
an  American  citizen.  I  would  take  him  by  the  hand  and  lift  him  up 
and  sustain  him.  I  would  never  oppress  or  depress  him  because  he  is 
poor,  ignorant,  and  a  colored  man.  I  would  give  him  every  oppor- 
tunity of  improving  his  physical,  mental,  and  moral  condition ;  and 
I  would  oppose  and  denounce  any  man  or  any  party  who  would  un- 
dertake to  proscribe  him  and  deny  him  these  rights  and  these  priv- 
ileges. The  laws,  the  Constitution  of  my  country,  guarantee  to  the 
negro  these  rights,  and  I  will  never  violate  them.  But  while  I  would 
endeavor  most  faithfully  to  do  full  and  complete  justice  to  the  colored 
man,  let  me  once  for  all  say  that  I  never  could  consent  that  the  white 
people  of  the  South,  the  white  people  of  the  country,  should  subordi- 
nate their  rights,  their  attainments,  their  capacities,  their  prestiges 
to  the  colored  man.  On  this  subject  my  convictions  are  firmly  fixed — 
immutably  fixed  and  settled. 

The  capacity  of  the  colored  man  for  self-government  is  not  yet  de- 
termined ;  his  capacity  to  attain  and  to  utilize  high  intellectual  cul- 
ture has  not  been  proved ;  his  moral  nature  has  not  yet  been  fully 
developed ;  his  disposition  and  his  ability  to  maintain  enlightened 
Christian  civilization  are  yet  in  doubt,  and  to  commit  to  him  the  des- 
tinies of  the  South,  its  fate,  its  future,  with  all  its  hopes  and  possi- 
bilities, would  be  an  act  of  madness  far  beyond  a#iy  language  of  mine 
to  describe.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  think  that  the  j>eople  of  the 
South  are  unjust,  unkind,  or  inimical  in  any  sense  to  the  colored  race. 
We  have  felt  too  deeply  the  weights  and  burdens  of  oppression  to 
desire  to  impose  them  on  others.  Our  own  experience  has  taught  us 
profound,  sincere  sympathy  for  an  oppressed  people.  We  know  what 
political  vassalage  is,  and  nothing  could  provoke  us  to  inflict  it  on  a 
weak  and  defenseless  race.  The  yoke  has  been  too  bitter  and  galling 
on  our  necks  for  us  to  be  willing  to  place  it  on  the  necks  of  others. 
We  certainly  now  know  the  value  of  freedom,  the  blessing  of  free 
government,  the  happiness  of  equal  laws,  and  we  would  be  the  last 
people  on  earth  to  deprive  any  human  beings  of  these  inestimable 
rights.  Nor,  sir,  if  we  desired  it,  could  we  afford  to  be  unjust  or  un- 
generous to  the  colored  people  at  the  South.  The  greatest  misfor- 
tune under  which  the  South  suffers  is  the  ignorance  of  the  northern 
people  in  reference  to  our  real  condition.  You  know  but  little  of 
our  Avauts  arid  necessities.  You  do  not  understand  our  true  situa- 
tion. You  are  not  the  jurors  of  the  vicinage.  You  are  strangers, 
undertaking  to  compose  and  settle  a  question  the  first  and  sim- 
plest elements  of  which  you  do  not  understand.  If  you  fully  com- 
prehended the  state  of  things  at  the  South  you  would  know  that  there 
is  a  mutual  dependence  now  and  likely  to  be  for  a  long  time  between 
the  races.  The  blacks  are  poor  and  generally  own  no  land.  The 
whites  possess  all  the  land,  and  without  labor  they  find  their  land 
valueless ;  hence  the  necessity  of  mutual  concession,  forbearance,  and 
kindness  ;  and  I  measure  deliberately  my  words  when  I  declare  that 
to  no  laboring  class  has  capital — land — ever  made  such  concessions  as 
have  been  made  to  the  colored  people  at  the  South.  The  land-owner 
is  compelled  by  every  motive  of  interest  and  duty  to  treat  the  colored 
laborer  with  extreme  kindness  and  fairness. 

The  competition  among  the  land-owners  for  tenants  and  labor- 
ers to  cultivate  their  lands  is  excited  and  constant ;  and  the  great 
object  of  the  planters  is  not,  as  has  been  most  untruly  alleged,  to 
drive  the  negroes  from  their  homes,  but  it  has  been  and  will  be  to 
get  negroes  to  settle  on  and  work  their  lands.     I  am  perfectly  well 


21 

satisfied  that  any  systematic  attempt  to  intimidate  the  blacks  by 
threats  to  drive  them  from  the  plantations  for  opinion's  sake  would 
result  in  utter  and  ridiculous  failure.  They  would  not  leave  one 
plantation  before  they  would  be  gladly  invited  and  welcomed  to 
another.  Every  effort  in  the  South  in  the  direction  of  any  combina- 
tion to  control  or  regulate  our  labor  system  has  signally  failed.  The 
interests  of  the  land-owners  themselves  always  defeat  any  such  en- 
terprise. And  such  will  always  be  the  case — the  necessary  state  of 
things  in  any  country  in  which  labor  is  scarce  and  land  is  plentiful. 

There  is  another  fact  in  the  history  of  the  negro  at  the  South  that 
constitutes  a  great  safeguard  to  his  interests  and  some  protection  to 
his  rights.  It  is  well  known  that  the  colored  man  will  not  remain 
where  he  is  not  well  treated.  The  planter  who  practices  injustice  or 
cruelty  or  oppression  on  the  colored  man  soon  finds  his  plantation 
depopulated  and  his  fields  a  desert,  and  I  promise  my  friend  from  New 
York  that  "resentments  and  prejudices"  do  not  long  survive  defeats 
of  this  character.  And  then,  sir,  over  and  above  all  of  these  considera- 
tions, far  above  all  of  them,  is  the  sense  of  justice  of  the  honorable 
men  of  the  South.  That  sense  of  justice  would  scorn  to  wrong  the 
colored  man.  Enlightened  public  opinion  at  the  South  demands  and 
exacts  fair  dealing  with  the  blacks.  No  white  man  at  the  South  can 
maintain  a  respectable  position  in  society  who  is  habitually  cruel  or 
unjust  to  the  colored  people ;  and  the  calumny  that  they  do  not 
receive  justice  in  our  courts  is  gross  and  flagrant.  In  the  name  of 
that  learned  and  honorable  profession  to  wdiich  it  is  my  pride  to  be- 
long, and  which  in  all  ages  of  the  world  has  proved  the  fearless  advo- 
cate of  the  oppressed  and  the  manly  defender  of  right,  whose  history 
is  the  record  of  justice  and  liberty,  I  protest  against  this  cruel  libel 
on  the  lawyers,  the  judges,  the  courts  of  the  South.  'I  appeal  to  that 
common  law  of  honor  known  among  the  profession,  wherever  the 
English  language  is  spoken,  to  disbelieve  and  refute  the  calumny. 

Think  you,  Senators,  that  the  bar  that  took  its  stamp  from  Mar- 
shall, Iredell,  Gaston,  Badger,  and  Pinckney  wrould  descend  from  its 
high  estate  to  become  the  persecutors  of  poor  helpless  blacks  ? 

Mr.  President,  there  is  a  matter  sometimes  intimated,  sometimes 
charged,  sometimes  advanced  in  one  direction  and  sometimes  demon- 
strated in  another,  that  I  feel  it  part  of  my  duty  to  answer.  I  think 
it  is  my  duty  to  do  it,  and  I  hope  it  will  not  be  thought  to  be  inap- 
propriate here.  We  have  been  told  that  there  will  be  in  the  next 
Congress  eighty-eight  confederate  soldiers.  I  ask  the  Clerk  to  read 
the  first  paragraph  from  an  address  delivered  by  General  Burnside  a 
day  or  two  ago. 

The  Chief  Clerk  read'  as  follows: 

Some  of  our  people  are  naturally  enough  alarmed  at  the  election  to  Congress  by 
the  southern  people  of  a  large  number  of  the  ex-officers  of  that  army.  Now,  com- 
rades, it  seems  to  me  that  a  little  consideration  will  show  that  there  is  no  great 
cause  for  alarm.  These  ex-officers,  it  should  be  remembered,  are  under  paroles  of 
honor.  While  we  all  believe  that  the  most  sacred  earthly  duty  of  an  American 
citizen  is  that  of  loyalty  to  the  Republic,  yet  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that 
a  soldier,  in  his  individual  capacity  of  a  soldier,  can  realize  no  contingency  that 
would  make  him  violate  his  parole. 

Mr.  EANSOM.  Mr.  President,  I  desire  to  send  from  this  Chamber  my 
thanks  to  General  Burnside,  the  Senator-elect  from  Rhode  Island,  for 
that  manly  sentiment  in  behalf  of  the  men  wrhom  he  so  lately  met 
bravely  in  battle.  I  tell  you  that  there  is  with  us,  if  it  can  be,  a  higher 
sentiment  of  honor  and  duty  even  than  the  parole  of  wdiich  he  speaks. 
And  here,  let  me  say  that  since  the  surrender  at  Appomattox  we 
have  been  accustomed  at  the  South,  the  soldiers  and  the  people, 


to  look  upon  the  soldiers  of  the  North  as  our  best  friends.  It  is 
true  that  for  four  years  we  met  them  in  battle  after  battle,  and 
that  blows  were  given  and  blows  received  such  as  the  god  of  war  has 
seldom  witnessed.  But  when  the  strife  was  ended  we  felt  that  the 
soldiers  of  both  armies  were  and  would  be  forever  friends.  Next  in  our 
hearts  to  our.  own  loved  comrades  were  the  gallant  adversaries  with 
whom  we  had  striven  in  honorable  conflict;  the  ashes  of  our 
noble  dead  mingled  in  the  same  field  with  the  honored  dust  of 
the  brave  men  of  the  North,  and  their  common  memories  were  the 
sacred  trust  of  our  affection  and  sorrow.  Between  the  survivors  there 
existed  that  brave  sympathy  which  in  all  ages  has  done  so  much 
honor  to  a  soldier's  character.  On  both  sides  they  knew  the  convic- 
tions which  inspire  men  when  they  take  their  lives  in  their  hands 
and  offer  them  to  the  service  of  their  country.  They  knew  that 
nothing  but  the  highest  and  purest  sense  of  duty  can  animate  and 
sustain  a  soldier  through  a  long  and  bloody  war.  They  knew  a 
soldier's  devotion  to  honor.  They  remembered  the  lines  of  a  hundred 
battles  upon  which  the  brave  men  of  the  North  met  the  brave  men  of 
the  South,  and  along  which  no  soldier  ever  refused  to  a  wounded 
adversary  the  last  drop  of  water  in  his  canteen  or  to  divide  the  last 
cracker  in  his  haversack.  They  remembered  their  common  dangers, 
privations,  and  patriotism.  They  felt  a  mutual  admiration  for  their 
virtues,  and  they  had  the  common  memory  of  gallant  and  devoted 
achievement.  There  was  between  them  that  high  respect  which 
courage  always  inspires,  and  both  had  won  too  much  glory  for  either 
to  envy  the  trophies  of  the  other.  I  need  not  say  that  in  their  brave 
hearts  there  was  no  place  for  hatred  or  revenge.  When  the  arms 
were  grounded  and  the  flags  furled  and  laid  away  all  antagonism 
ceased,  and  one  generous  desire  for  peace  and  fraternal  union  pervaded 
all  ranks  of  the  dissolving  armies.  Hands  that  had  lately  met  in 
deadly  conflict  were  now  grasped  with  friendly  fervor,  and  tears  of 
regret  and  of  joy  flowed  freely  down  cheeks  scarred  with  the  furrows 
of  war.  Can  it  ever  be  forgotten  that  in  that  unhappy  struggle 
brothers  were  arrayed  on  opposing  sides,  and  that  when  the  contest 
was  over  they  met  as  brothers  again.  May  I  not  say  that  it  was  a 
conflict  between  brothers,  sons  of  the  same  glorious  mother,  and 
when  it  was  over  they  were  brothers  once  more. 

Since  the  surrender  at  Appomattox  I  have  met  hundreds,  yes  thou- 
sands of  your  gallant  men,  the  men  who  fought  for  the  Union,  aud  I 
have  yet  to  meet  the  first  soldier  who  did  not  grasp  my  extended  and 
open  hand  with  the  cordial  clasp  of  friendship  and  patriotism.  I 
cannot,  I  will  not  permit  these  feelings,  these  sentiments,  honorable 
alike  to  the  gallant  men  of  both  causes,  to  be  disturbed  by  any  words 
that  may  be  spoken  here.  No  party  excitement,  no  intense  zeal,  no 
heated  denuuciation,  no  intemperate  expressions,  no  sectional  animos- 
ities shall  obscure  or  obliterate  the  just,  hopeful,  patriotic  impressions 
which  these  noble  facts  have  left  on  my  mind.  I  prefer  to  cherish  and 
preserve  them  in  undimmed  and  glowing  brightness — 

Within  the  book  and  volume  of  my  brain, 

Unmix'd  with  baser  matter. 

Instead  of  sectional  passions,  divisions,  strifes,  let  the  blood,  the 
tears,  the  affections  of  American  soldiers,  be  they  from  the  North  or 
from  the  South,  form  a  bow  of  peace  that  shall  stand  forever  as  the 
bond  and  arch  of  a  united  people.  Upon  it  there  will  be  drops  of 
sorrow,  but  it  will  be  radiant  with  honor  and  patriotic  duty  and  hope. 

We  have  been  told  by  the  press  aud  we  have  heard  here  that  in 
the  next  Con<jrress  there  will   be  more  than  eightv  confederate  sol- 


23 

diers.  Let  that  fact,  Mr.  President,  give  the  country  no  alarm,  no 
excitement.  Yon  will  find  these  representatives  conservative,  pa- 
triotic, and  national,  eminently  desirous  of  being  just  and  generous 
to  the  whole  country,  and  resolved  to  demonstrate  their  fidelity  to 
the  Government  and  to  prove  to  the  world  that  they  are  as  true  and 
honorable  defenders  of  the  Union  and  the  Constitution  as  they  were 
gallant  and  devoted  soldiers  of  the  confederacy.  If  the  soil  or  the 
honor  of  the  nation  were  to  be  assailed  by  a  foreign  or  domestic  foe  you 
would  see  them  with  their  noble  comrades  rushing  to  its  defense,  il- 
lustrating the  same  courage  and  constancy  which  they  displayed  for 
their  own  altars  and  furnishing  the  world  an  example  of  the  invinci- 
ble prowess  of  American  arms  when  united.  I  pray  the  calamity  of 
war  may  not  befall  this  country ;  I  pray  God  to  avert  it  from  us ;  but 
if  unhappily  it  should  come,  the  American  people  will  witness  the  un- 
surpassed valor  and  patriotism  of  southern  soldiers,  and  will  embrace 
with  gratitude  and  affection  their  countrymen  whom  they  now  dis- 
trust and  denounce.  Deploring  war  as  among  the  greatest  if  not  the 
greatest  scourge,  if  my  country  should  summon  her  sons  to  her  de- 
fense I  would  go  as  far  to  protect  her  rights  and  her  honor,  and  I 
would  advance  with  the  same  sense  of  duty  and  the  same  devotion, 
that  I  hope  animated  me  in  the  struggle  of  the  South. 

How,  Mr.  President,  as  a  man  sworn  to  support  the  Constitution 
and  the  Union,  could  I  have  in  my  heart  one  spot  hostile  or  indif- 
ferent to  either?  Surrounded  by  the  afflictions  and  deep  harass- 
nients  of  my  section,  and  deprecating  war  from  the  bottom  of  my 
heart,  I  have  at  times  almost  wished  for  it  with  some  foreign  foe, 
that  in  the  united  sacrifices  of  the  South  and  the  North  all  the  bitter 
memories  of  the  civil  conflict  and  all  the  animosities  of  section  might 
be  buried  and  forgotten. 

Mr.  President,  there  is  another  subject  upon  which  the  South  is 
gravely  misunderstood.  We  are  represented  as  hostile,  cherishing 
bitter,  deadly,  low  hate  to  northern  people.  I  do  not  know  how  to 
discuss  it.  We  desire  northern  people  to  come  among  us.  We  wish 
them  to  come.  If  there  is  anything  in  the  world  now  that  is  more 
desirable  at  the  South  except  peace  than  good  northern  settlers,  I  do 
not  know  what  it  is.  I  know  of  nothing  that  we  so  welcome,  nothing 
that  is  so  cheerfully  embraced.  Sir,  I  will  say  that  the  present  un- 
happy condition  of  the  South  might  have  been  very  different  if  good 
northern  people  had  come  in  place  of  many  who  came  only  to  curse  us. 

The  condition  of  the  South  might  have  been  far  different.  I  can 
imagine  a  large  mimber  of  intelligent,  virtuous,  patriotic  citizens  from 
the  North,  animated  by  love  of  enterprise  and  attracted  by  our  beau- 
tiful climate  and  soil,  coming  to  the  South  to  make  their  homes  with 
us.  I  can  see  them  bringing  with  them  the  thrifty  industries  of 
northern  habits.  I  can  see  in  them  a  firm  adherence  to  their  own 
opinions,  tempered  with  a  just  tolerance  for  our  convictions.  I 
can  see  them  bringing  their  pure  and  happy  families,  the  beloved 
pledges  of  their  attachment,  to  their  new  homes.  I  can  see  them 
benevolently  striving  to  mitigate  the  calamities  that  surround  their 
southern  neighbors.  I  can  see  them  laboring  to  restore  and  estab- 
lish friendship  and  kindness  between  the  white  and  black  races.  I 
can  see  them  persuading  our  people  to  adopt  their  improved  system 
of  common  schools,  and  teaching  us  by  the  example  of  their  success 
to  divide  our  large  estates  into  small  and  flourishing  farms.  I  can 
see  them  leading  us  to  utilize  all  the  grand  resources  of  our  forests, 
our  mines,  our  rivers,  our  water-powers,  and  all  the  unequaled  produc- 
tion sand  fruits  of  our  generous  soil.     I  can  see  them  building  beau- 


24 

tiful  villages,  erecting  comfortable  homes,  raising  stately  churches, 
and  opening  up  new  avenues  of  commerce  all  over  the  South.  And  I 
can  see  the  ardent,  frank,  brave,  generous  southerner  taking  these 
honorable,  useful  comers  by  the  hand,  welcoming  them  to  the  land  of 
his  birth,  and  to  the  hospitalities  of  his  heart.  I  can  see  springing  up 
by  their  common  efforts  a  cordial,  sympathetic,  indissoluble  union 
of  interest  and  sentiment,  and  the  growth  of  a  progressive,  happy, 
honorable  community.  I  can  see  there  a  true  and  perfect  forgetful- 
ness  and  oblivion  of  all  the  bitter  memories  of  past  conflicts,  and  a 
united  love  and  affection  for  a  Government  founded  by  their  fathers 
and  illustrated  by  a  common  glory.  On  such  a  scene  my  eyes  would 
delight  to  rest,  my  heart  rejoice  to  repose.  Descendants  of  those  who 
landed  at  Plymouth  and  Manhattan,  and  of  those  who  settled  on 
the  James  and  the  Cape  Fear,  again  meeting,  after  years  of  terrible 
conflict,  to  enjoy  peace,  and  to  live  under  a  free  Government  of  equal 
laws. 

But,  unfortunately,  the  South  presents  a  very  different  scene.  The 
class  of  northern  citizens  whom  I  have  described  did  not  come  in 
large  numbers  to  the  South.  Among  those  who  came  after  the  war 
were  many  honorable  and  worthy  men,  who  have  remained  with  us 
and  to-day,  without  exception,  enjoy  the  confidence  and  respect  of 
the  southern  people. 

In  my  own  State  there  are  many  such  meu,  for  whom  I  have  great 
respect  and  kindness,  and  who  I  believe  entertain  confidence  and  at- 
tachment to  me.  There  is  at  Elizabeth  City,  No^th  Carolina,  a  colony 
of  northern  men  of  two  hundred  prosperous,  contented,  patriotic 
people,  very  generally  belonging  to  the  republican  party. 

I  do  not  desire  to  put  party  in  this  speech.  If  I  could  write  it 
and  leave  the  word  out,  I  would  do  so.  There  is  something  to  me  in 
the  condition  of  our  country  far  above  party.  The  honor  of  my 
country,  the  perpetuity  of  this  Union,  the  preservation  of  its  liberties, 
are  far,  transcendently  above  party.  No  party  ties,  associations,  or 
fetters  could  bind  me  for  a  moment  where  my  duty  to  the  South  was 
concerned.  A  northern  colony  is  on  the  Eoanoke,  near  Jamesville  ; 
another  is  at  Eidgeway's,  in  Warren  County ;  another  at  Henderson,  in 
Granville  County ;  another  at  Ealeigk,  the  capital  of  the  State ;  another 
at  Beaufort,  another  in  Guilford  County,  another  on  the  Cape  Fear,  and 
they  are  all  doing  well  and  are  greatly  respected. 

Sir,  we  have  been  asked  in  this  debate  to  name  the  northern  man 
who  had  been  honored  by  the  South  with  high  position,  and  the 
question  was  put  with  an  air  of  triumph,  indicating  that  it  could  not 
be  answered.  Sir,  let  me  tell  Senators  what  I  supposed  was  obliged 
to  be  known  to  all  the  world,  that  the  noble  Commonwealth  of  Vir- 
ginia, the  "  Mother  of  States,"  elected  to  her  executive  office — the 
highest  position  in  her  gift — Hon.  Gilbert  C.  Walker,  a  northern  man 
by  birth  and  education,  a  Union  man  during  all  the  war,  aud  not  a 
resident  of  the  State  of  Virginia  until  its  conclusion.  Governor 
Walker  is  my  answer,  my  example,  and  my  illustration.  Of  him  it  is 
feeble  praise  to  say  that  he  is  a  gentleman  without  reproach,  a 
patriot  without  fear,  a  statesman  without  sectional  prejudice,  and 
an  American  citizen  with  a  warm,  honest  heart.  These  qualities 
gave  him  the  confidence  of  that  illustrious  people.  He  deserved 
it ;  and  now  he  is  to  represent  the  capital  district  of  that  grand 
State  in  the  next  Congress  of  the  United  States,  aud  there  is  no 
more  honored  or  loved  name  among  that  intelligent  and  patriotic 
people.  Virginia  makes  the  sou  of  New  York,  the  citizen  of  Illinois, 
who  fought  against  her  on  her  own  sacred  soil,  her  governor  and  her 


25 

Representative  in  Congress.  There  is  the  reply  to  the  unjust  charge 
that  the  South  is  unfair  in  any  sense  to  men  of  worth,  come  from 
what  State  they  may. 

Bat  unfortunately  many  who  came  to  the  South  were  not  like 
Governor  Walker.  Another  and  a  widely  different  class  flocked  to  our 
borders  as  the  great  armies  dissolved  and  the  work  of  restoration  be- 
gan. They  were  not  of  the  Adamses,  the  Hancocks,  the  Websters  of 
Massachusetts.  They  were  not  of  the  Hamiltons,  the  Clintons,  the 
Wrights  of  New  York.  They  were  not  of  the  patriot  statesmen  of 
Pennsylvania.  They  were  not  of  the  steadfast,  vigorous  character 
of  Ohio.  They  were  not  of  the  bold,  honest  freemen  of  the  West. 
They  were  not  of  the  intrepid,  generous  pioneers  of  the  Pacific  slope. 
Without  character  or  position  in  the  States  that  gave  them  birth, 
with  no  ties  of  property  or  association  there,  without  respect  for 
themselves  and  with  no  regard  for  the  rights  or  feelings  of  others, 
they  saw  in  the  prostrate  South  a  field  for  enterprise  congenial  to 
their  natures  and  pursuits.  They  came  as  the  vultures  come.  They 
entered  the  despoiled  and  wasted  garden  of  the  South  only  to  plant 
in  it  a  curse  darker  and  deadlier  than  the  ruins  of  war.  There 
they  planted  no  cheerful  fruits,  there  they  cultivated  no  gentle 
flowers,  but  there  they  sowed  with  a  profuse  hand  the  thorns  and 
thistles  of  hate  and  bitter  passion.  They  spared  no  sacred  relic  of 
time,  they  respected  no  cherished  custom  of  our  fathers.  To  the 
demon  passion  of  a  groveling  avarice  they  sacrificed  every  sentiment 
of  justice  and  humanity,  and  to  that  base  idolatry  they  were  alone 
faithful.  Finding  the  unhappy  colored  man  just  emerging  from 
slavery,  they  used  him  as  the  ladder  to  political  preferment,  and  pros- 
tituted the  position  so  acquired  to  the  vilest  venality  and  peculation. 
Whatever  was  necessary  to  the  accomplishment  of  their  rapacious 
purposes  was  accomplished  boldly  and  without  remorse.  Restrained 
by  no  conscience,  recognizing  the  white  people  of  the  South  as 
the  victims  of  conquest,  and  the  colored  race  as  the  convenient  in- . 
struments  of  their  oppression,  they  sacrificed  both  to  their  personal 
aggrandizement.  To  unite  the  negro  race  against  the  white  people, 
and  thus  secure  the  possession  of  power,  they  deliberately  alienated 
the  blacks  from  the  whites,  and  wrought  them  into  a  compact,  un- 
broken, and  inflamed  mass,  desperately  opposed  to  anything  the 
whites  could  propose  for  their  common  benefit.  They  exasperated 
this  antagonism  of  race  to  the  highest  and  last  pitch  of  intensity. 
They  arrayed  the  blacks  against  the  whites  in  almost  deadly  division. 

Not  content  with  this  fearful  exploit,  they  maliciously  set  to  work  to 
excite  the  poor  and  uneducated  against  those  who  had  education,  prop- 
erty, or  position.  They  aroused  every  prejudice  of  class  and  appealed 
to  every  passion  of  discontent.  From  the  most  degraded  walks  of 
life  they  selected  the  accomplices  of  their  schemes  of  public  wrong 
and  exalted  them  to  high  and  respectable  offices  and  places.  Aided 
by  the  United  States  Army  and  constantly  supported  and  encouraged 
by  congressional  legislation,  they  united  with  southern  men,  some  of 
whom  were  corrupt  and  others  misguided,  and  obtained  official  power, 
patronage,  and  place  all  over  the  Southern  States.  Military  rule, 
commonly  the  terror  of  a  civilized  people,  proved  in  this  time  a  mercy 
and  a  j)rotection  to  Virginia.  She  was  spared  the  spoliation  and 
humiliation  that  befell  her  ouce  proud  sisters.  No  sooner  were  they 
securely  fixed  in  power  than  that  unparalleled  carnival  of  venality, 
peculation,  waste,  and  spoil  began  that  has  shocked  the  moral  sense  of 
the  civilized  world  and  brought  reproach  upon  the  age  in  which  we 
live  and  the  country  where  it  transpired. 


26 

In  two  years  the  debts  of  the  Southern  States  were  increased  two  hun- 
dred millions.  Every  available  resource,  revenue,  and  assets  of  these 
afflicted  States  were  converted  into  nioney,and  went  the  same  dark 
road  to  enrich  the  office-holder  and  beggar  the  people.  Funds  sacredly 
dedicated  to  educate  the  children  of  the  people  did  not  escape  the  com- 
mon fate  of  spoliation.  Public  justice  was  shamelessly  bartered  in 
the  streets.  Offices,  laws,  and  honors  were  sold  after  the  manner 
that  the  pretorian  guard  sold  the  crown  of  the  Roman  Empire  to 
Julianus,  the  most  corrupt  and  infamous  of  usurpers.  The  National 
Government  even  did  not  escape  the  general  contamination.  You 
beheld  with  patriotic  shame  the  precious  privileges  of  admission  to 
the  lofty  schools  for  the  soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  Republic  bartered 
and  sold  ;  a  price  in  money  fixed  upon  those  exalted  duties.  How 
long  will  honor  survive  when  the  youth  who  is  to  guide  the  nation's 
armies  and  sail  her  proud  navies  knows  that  his  commission  was 
bought,  and  that  the  representatives  of  his  people  are  purchasable 
with  money?  Young  man,  blush  to  wear  the  star  of  a  soldier,  that 
should  be  won  with  a  soldier's  duty,  when  bought  with  the  base 
coin  that  stains  your  country's  honor ! 

In  the  presence  of  this  spoliation  and  dishonor  of  a  people  the 
cruelties  of  Verres  in  Sicily,  the  wrougs  of  Hastings  in  India,  sink 
into  trifling  misdemeanors.  In  the  grand  eclipse  of  the  last  six 
years  these  historic  enormities  are  but  feeble  spots  on  the  dark  pict- 
ure. History  has  drawn  in  her  darkest  colors,  poetry  and  eloquence 
have  arrayed  in  their  gloomiest  outlines,  painting  has  elaborated 
with  her  somber  skill,  the  rapacity  and  ruthless  extortions  of  Cortez 
and  Pizarro ;  and  though  their  perishing  forms  have  moldered  for 
more  than  a  century,  the  moral  sense  of  mankind  has  kept  alive 
their  memories  for  universal  execration  and  their  accursed  example 
as  a  dreadful  warning  to  the  transcendent  in  wickedness.  But  what 
were  their  deeds  compared  with  the  spoliation,  the  corruption,  the 
misrule  that  prevailed  in  the  Southern  States  under  the  governments 
that  sprang  up  after  the  reconstruction  acts  ?  Far  be  it  from  me, 
Mr.  President,  to  include  in  this  class  whom  I  have  thus  feebly  endeav- 
ored to  describe  the  large  majority  of  northern  men  who  come  South. 
Among  them  are  many  excellent  and  worthy  persons,  whose  coming 
to  the  South  promises  much  good  to  our  section  ;  men  of  character,  of 
virtuous  habits,  of  patriotic  impulses,  belonging  to  both  parties — 
republican  and  democrat.  We  welcome  these  men  among  us  with- 
out regard  to  their  party  sympathies ;  we  acknowledge  their  useful- 
ness. I  only  denounce  those  who,  in  unison  with  bad  men  of  the 
South,  bave  brought  this  ruin  upon  our  States.  In  this  denunciation 
I  shall  not  be  guilty  of  that  injustice  which  has  been  perpetrated  on 
the  other  side  of  this  Chamber.  Far  be  it  from  my  purpose,  because 
a  few  extremely  wicked  and  corrupt  men  have  despoiled  my  section, 
to  cast  a  stigma  upon  a  large  and  estimable  class  of  useful  and  patri- 
otic citizens.  That  would  be  as  unjust,  as  cruel,  and  as  untrue  as  the 
attempt  to  make  the  whole  southern  people  or  the  people  of  any 
southern  State  responsible  for  the  excesses,  the  outrages,  the  crimes, 
that  have  been  committed  by  a  few  individuals,  in  a  few  isolated 
spots,  in  a  few  unhappy  localities  over  the  South. 

But,  sir,  other  imputations  are  brought  here  against  the  South,  all 
calculated  to  create  prejudice  against  her  people.  Frequent  allusions 
have  been  made  in  this  debate  to  what  Senators  are  pleased  to  call 
"southern  chivalry,"  in  terms  of  derision  and  reproach.  I  shall  not 
discuss  with  Senators  the  propriety  of  their  criticisms.  That  is  a  ques- 
tion of  taste,  about  which  we  may  well  differ.     I  trust  sincerely  that 


27 

the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  a  just  corrective  of  a  custom  I  do  not 
defend,  and  which  has  been  greatly  abused,  shall  be  found  in  an  en- 
lightened Christian  public  sentiment.  To  that  humane  arbitrament  I 
hope  always  to  be  able  to  defer.  But,  sir,  to  whatever  tribunal  I  shall 
feel  called  upon  to  refer  that  responsibility,  which  seems  in  some  quar- 
ters to  give  so  much  offense,  I  trust  I  shall  be  scrupulously  careful  to 
observe,  in  all  controversies,  every  law  of  courtesy  and  kindness,  and 
never  so  far  to  forget  what  is  due  to  myself  and  equally  due  to  others  as 
to  substitute  in  intellectual  combat  for  the  parliamentary  weapons  of 
reason  and  argument  the  use  of  opprobrious  epithets,  harsh  aspersions, 
violent  crimination  and  recrimination.  I  shall  leave  such  means  of 
warfare  to  be  employed  byfthose  to  whose  tastes  and  sentiments  they 
are  more  compatible.  While  I  should  regard  them  as  the  feeblest  in- 
struments of  assault  upon  the  position  of  others,  I  should  certainly 
feel  that  they  were  the  weakest  armor  for  my  own  character  or  honor. 
Holding  myself  strictly  accountable  for  all  that  I  may  utter  in  this 
Chamber  or  elsewhere,  I  shall  not  dispute  with  any  champion  the 
laurels  that  are  to  be  won  on  the  field  of  personal  or  partisan  abuse. 
Those  who  are  ambitious  of  that  palm  may  wear  it. 

But  if  by  these  references  to  "  southern  chivalry  "  Senators  intend 
to  impute  to  the  people  of  the  South  any  want  of  those  high  qualities 
of  honor,  virtue,  truth,  courage,  and  dignity  of  character  which  have 
been  asserted  to  belong  to  them,  or  the  absence  of  those  gentler  hu- 
manities of  charity,  courtesy,  generosity,  and  all  the  graces  of  Chris- 
tian life,  I  meet  the  Senators  on  the  threshold  of  their  accusation, 
and  I  tell  them  before  the  world  that  this  impeachment  of  the  char- 
acter of  our  people  is  groundless  and  injurious ;  as  unjust  to  those 
who  make  it  as  it  is  to  the  brave,  honest,  noble  people  who  are  thus 
misunderstood,  misrepresented,  and  defamed.  I  repel  the  aspersion 
with  the  indignant  scorn  of  an  injured  and  outraged  people.  I  repel 
it  in  the  name  of  eight  millions  of  living,  virtuous  freemen  ;  I  repel 
it  in  the  name  of  twelve  generations  of  gallant  patriots ;  I  protest 
against  it  by  the  solemn  judgment  of  history ;  I  refute  it  by  the 
character  of  the  living  and  the  dead ;  I  appeal  from  it  in  its  error 
and  madness  to  the  universal  and  concurrent  testimony  of  mankind. 
I  hurl  it  to  the  ground ;  I  trample  it  in  the  dust.  There  is  not  an 
event  in  the  nation's  annals  connected  with  the  South  that  does  not 
condemn  and  rebuke  the  odious  sentiment.  It  can  find  no  habitation 
or  sympathy  in  the  heart  of  the  civilized  world;  it  can  find  no  lodg- 
ment in  one  solitary,  isolated  spot  of  authentic  tradition ;  it  will  be 
banished  and  driven  away  from  the  face  of  men  in  despair  of  finding 
a  home  where  truth  and  j  ustice  reside .  Branded  with  infamy  all  over, 
it  must  seek  a  resting  place  only  in  bosoms  from  which  the  dark 
passions  of  hate  and  fury  have  forever  excluded  the  light. 

Before  the  Eepublic  has  attained  little  more  than  a  man's  life 
have  we  reached  a  development  of  passion  that  France  did  not 
mature  for  nearly  a  thousand  years  ?  Are  we  in  the  early  youth  of 
the  nation  about  to  discover  the  worst  symptom  of  the  insane  mala- 
dies that  assailed  France  in  tile  revolution?  Have  we  so  soon 
fallen  on  the  dark  scene  in  the  drama  of  nations  which  marked  the 
declining  days  of  the  Roman  Empire?  Is  all  truth  confounded  be- 
fore our  eyes,  and  are  the  very  vestiges  of  justice  obliterated  from 
our  hearts  ?  What  unheard-of  madness  has  destroyed  the  conscious- 
ness of  fact  in  our  minds  and  the  sensibility  of  conscience  within  us? 
Has  the  storm  of  sectional  strife  drowned  the  voice  of  history?  Are 
the  living  records  of  the  age  erased  by  the  intensity  of  party  heat? 
Has  memory  been  dethroned  from  the  human  mind  and  her  proud 


28 

scepter  surrendered  to  prejudice  ?  For  such  must  be  our  melancholy 
condition  when  we  can  believe  that  the  "  South  is  degenerate."  Else 
from  your  graves,  immortal  founders  of  the  Eepublic,  and  rebuke  the 
impious  calumny!  Great  Father  of  your  Country,  I  invoke  your  hal 
lowed  name  to  silence  it  forever.  Illustrious  author  of  the  "Declara- 
tion," has  thy  glory  been  so  soon  extinguished?  Father  of  the  Consti- 
tution, has  thy  honored  name  perished  amid  the  blows  inflicted  on  thy 
great  work  ?  Hero  of  New  Orleans,  has  the  bright  fame  of  your  vic- 
tory over  a  foreign  foe  been  eclipsed  by  a  more  recent  victory  over 
the  liberties  of  the  State  you  defended?  Has  the  8th  of  January, 
1815,  been  blotted  out  by  the  4th  of  January,  1875? 

When  did  the  South  become  degenerate  ?  When  her  sons  unaided 
and  alone  bore  the  "  Lone  star  "  westward  and  carved  an  empire  State 
from  the  heritage  of  the  Montezumas  ?  Or  did  her  courage  expire  on 
the  blazing  heights  of  Buena  Vista,  and  did  Taylor  and  Bragg  and 
Crittenden  dim  its  luster  ?  Was  her  honor  lost  by  Scott  or  Lee  in  the 
valleys,  on  the  hills,  or  before  the  walls  of  Mexico,  or  was  her  bright 
sword  tarnished  when  Butler  and  the  Palmetto  Regiment  left  on  the 
field  of  Churubusco  the  example  that  was  to  be  no  more  gloriously  fol- 
lowed by  the  six  hundred  at  Balaklava  ?  Are  we  to  be  told  of  south- 
ern degeneracy  in  the  Halls  of  this  Capitol,  where  the  echoes  of  the 
mighty  words  of  Clay  and  Calhoun  still  ring  in  our  ears  and  the 
proud  images  of  Marshall  and  Taney  stand  guard  at  the  altars  of 
justice;  where  ten  Presidents  of  the  United  States  rise  before  our 
eyes  to  attest  its  falsehood,  and  a  train  of  heroes,  statesmen,  jurists, 
with  an  endless  line  of  patriots,  proclaim  its  injustice  ?  Senators, 
before  you  can  believe  it,  you  must  tear  from  American  history 
its  brightest  pages;  you  must  pull  down  the  Capitol,  remove  its 
monuments,  and  obliterate  its  name.  Go  to  the  uttermost  limits  of  the 
earth,  follow  the  remotest  waves  of  the  sea,  stand  on  any  spot  in  the 
A^ast  breadth  of  your  country,  and  look  up  and  behold  the  flag  of  the 
Eepublic,  and  the  starry  banner  that  blazes  over  your  head  will  recall 
at  the  "  dawn's  early  light  and  the  twilight's  last  gleaming "  the 
genius  and  soul  of  the  southern  patriot  from  whom  it  derived  its 
dearest  inspiration.  But  Senators  will  exclaim  this  is  the  South  as 
she  was,  not  as  she  is;  the  South  years  ago  when  she  stood  with  the 
North  in  the  Union,  not  the  South  during  and  since  the  war,  shorn 
of  her  strength  and  beauty. 

I  am  admonished  not  to  tread  on  ground  on  which  the  smothered 
fires  are  not  yet  extinguished;  but  though  I  walked  barefooted 
and  blindfolded  over  burning  plowshares,  in  this  I  ought  not  to 
hesitate;  for  he  who  with  a  right  heart  bravely  treads  the  path  of 
truth  and  duty  has  nothing  to  fear.  Yes,  Senators,  duty  more  sacred 
than  life  commands  me  to  ask  on  what  field  in  the  late  ever-to-be-de- 
plored war  did  the  South  betray  anything  but  the  highest  qualities 
of  the  best  of  men?  Where  were  the  evidences  of  her  decline  and 
degeneracy?  Ask  your  noble  patriots  who  met  her  no  less  noble  sons 
on  a  hundred  ensanguined  fields  ?  Eead  the  reports  of  your  generals 
and  all  contemporaneous  history  and»you  will  look  in  vain  for  but  one 
response.  I  will  draw  no  contrasts  between  those  brave  armies, 
those  true,  devoted  men  on  either  side.  I  only  wish  their  great  strug- 
gle had  been  a  united  effort  to  expand  the  area  of  free  institutions, 
to  extend  the  light  of  American  civilization,  to  enlarge  and  magnify 
all  the  beneficent  influences  of  American  liberty.  While  I  shed 
tears  over  the  loss  of  the  gallant  men  of  both  armies  I  rejoice  in  their 
common  bravery,  truth,  fortitude,  and  splendid  achievements,  and 
still  more  in  the  fact  that  no  one  but  Americans  could  have  resisted 


29 

as  we  did  and  that  none  but  Americans  could  have  persevered  as  you 
did*,  yet  I  hut  speak  the  simple  truth  before  the  world  and  before 
Heaven  when  I  declare  that  human  history  from  the  beginning  has 
failed  to  furnish  a  brighter  example  of  all  the  devoted  qualities  of 
soldiers'  duty  than  was  daily  exhibited  in  the  army  of  the  South.  I 
need  not  recall  those  -who  formed  that  glittering  line  of  bayonets  on 
Marye's  burning  hill ;  who  met  the  red  storm  of  blood  and  fire  at 
Chancellorsville;  who  stepped  like  bridegrooms  to  a  marriage  feast 
up  the  stony  ridge  at  Gettysburgh,  and  meeting  death  from  foemen 
worthy  of  their  steel,  fell  back  like  the  sullen  roar  of  broken  waters. 
I  need  not  recall  those  noble  spirits  who  drew  their  expiring  breath 
in  the  mortal  trenches  at  Petersburgh  or  who  bore  their  wasted 
forms  and  looked  for  the  last  time  upon  earth  upon  the  bleak  hills 
of  Appomattox. 

No,  Senators,  we  are  worthy  to  be  your  countrymen,  worthy  to  be 
the  patriot-brothers  of  your  own  ever-glorious  and  honored  men  who 
prevailed  against  us.  Instead  of  carping  and  criminating  and  taunt- 
ing, let  us  biiry  deep  and  forever  every  recollection  of  that  war  that 
does  not  revive  the  common  honor  and  courage  and  Christian  humanity 
of  the  North,  and  the  South,  and  the  whole  American  people.  If  there 
be  any  cloud  upon  the  arms  of  either,  thank  God  there  is  glory  enough 
for  the  arms  of  both,  and  that  glory  belongs  to  the  American  people. 
Are  not  the  victories  of  Pompey  and  Csesar  the  common  renown  of 
Eomef  Are  not  the  "red  rose  "and  the  "white  rose  "now  intertwined 
in  the  crown  of  England's  history  ?  Is  it  indelicate  for  me  to  remind 
you  that  the  noble  Greeks,  the  Athenians  and  the  Spartans,  erected 
monuments  of  perishable  wood  to  celebrate  victories  over  their  coun- 
trymen ?  They  built  them  for  their  triumphs  over  foreign  foes  of  en- 
during marble  and  brass.  The  brave  Romans,  whose  conquering 
legions  made  the  world  their  empire,  never  permitted  a  triumph  to 
any  victor  in  their  civil  wars.  Those  nations  of  antiquity  would  not 
perpetuate  their  own  strifes.  Shall  this  Christian  Union  be  less  mag- 
nanimous than  the  republics  of  the  idolatrous  ages  ? 

The  Southern  States  tender  you  their  faithful  support  of  the  Gov- 
ernment ;  they  offer  yoir  their  treasure  in  peace,  their  valor  in  war, 
their  resolution  to  pay  their  part  of  the  national  debt,  incurred  for 
their  coercion  ;  they  desire  to  extend  to  you  the  trust  and  affection 
of  warm  and  loyal  hearts,  and  for  all  this  they  give  you  the  pledge 
of  an  honor  that  was  never  broken.  What  more  can  you  wish  ?  Will 
you  refuse  these  proffered  duties  ;  will  you  repel  these  priceless  offer- 
ings ;  will  you  insult  this  generous  spirit  ?  Will  you  treat  with  in- 
credulity and  disdain  these  honorable  conciliations  ?  Will  you  return 
for  them  alienation,  taunt,  and  mockery?  Or  will  you  receive  them 
with  just  confidence,  with  reciprocal  affection,  with  unreserved  pa- 
triotism ?  What  more  do  you  desire  ?  Do  you  hope  to  see  us  descend 
to  self-abasement  and  self-degradation?  Do  you  expect  us  to  dis- 
honor our  history,  to  deny  our  convictions,  to  humble  and  debase  our 
manhood,  to  forget  our  duty,  and  to  cover  our  names  with  inexpia- 
ble shame,  by  false,  cowardly,  serrile  pretenses  and  professions 
that  would  shock  every  sentiment  of  truth  in  our  bosoms?  Let  me 
tell  you,  Senator8rthis  can  never,  never  be.  These  proud  States  will 
not  come  on  bended  knees  and  bow  their  majestic  forms  on  the  steps 
of  this  Capitol,  mortified,  humiliated,  prostrated  in  the  dust.  Better,  a 
thousand  times  better,  that  the  stars  on  the  flag  of  the  Republic  which 
bear  the  names  of  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia 
be  blotted  out  forever,  like  the  lost  Pleiad  from  the  constellation,  than 
become  pale  and  feeble  satellites  to  represent  dishonored  and  de- 
graded sisters! 


30 

What  will  be  the  sentiment  of  the  great  people  of  the  North  ?  What 
will  he  the  opinion  of  the  world,  when  it  is  known  that  northern 
Representatives  in  Congress  rejected  with  scorn  and  contempt  every 
effort  of  the  South  for  peace  and  justice  f  In  what  characters  will 
history  record  the  fact,  that  after  four  years  of  bloodiest  war  and  the 
expenditure  of  countless  millions  to  preserve  the  Union,  the  North 
persistently  declined  with  contumely  and  crimination  every  expres- 
sion of  friendship,  every  offer  of  peace,  every  tender  of  good-will, 
every  aspiration  for  fraternal  restoration  that  the  people  of  the  South 
could  with  justice,  with  propriety,  and  truth  make  ?  That  will  be  a 
startling  page  in  history  which  transmits  to  future  ages  that  all  our 
sentiments  and  hopes  and  wishes  and  exertions  for  conciliation  were 
answered  with  doubt,  distrust,  reproof,  and  bitter  calumniation.  I 
cannot,  I  will  not  believe  this  condition  is  to  continue.  Between  the 
North  and  the  South  there  is  now  no  just  cause  of  quarrel,  no  ground 
for  separation,  no  necessity  for  hostility.  No  great  moral  sentiment, 
no  transcendent  material  interest  now  divides  us.  But  every  argu- 
ment of  reason,  every  motive  of  interest,  every  obligation  of  duty, 
every  consideration  of  honor,  every  sentiment  of  patriotism — all  de- 
mand and  enforce  peace  and  perpetual  harmony  between  the  sections. 

But,  Senators,  peace  at  the  price  of  our  honor  is  impossible.  That 
sacrifice  will  never  be  made.  Abuse,  denunciation,  aspersion,  are  not 
the  instruments  of  reconciliation.  Silence  under  them,  submission  to 
them,  concurrence  in  them  would  be  the  highest  crime.  The  people 
who  consent  to  their  own  dishonor  deserve  to  be  slaves.  Heaven 
save  us  from  this  deepest  wrong  to  ourselves. 

If  with  all  the  lights  before  us,  with  the  lessons  of  the  great  past, 
the  instructions  of  our  forefathers,  in  the  noonday  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  in  the  blaze  of  its  civilization,  we  could  so  far  forget  our 
duty,  our  love  of  country,  our  own  self-respect,  and  our  regard  for 
the  opinion  of  the  world  as  to  consent  for  the  sake  of  a  temporary 
repose  to  the  violation  of  our  consciences,  to  the  concealment  of  our 
opinions,  to  the  suppression  of  the  truth,  and  descend  to  the  base  and 
abject  confession  that  the  calumnies  on  our  people  were  true,  we  should 
deserve  the  supremest  curse  of  mankind  for  having  attained  the  most 
exquisite  refinement  in  infamy  and  for  having  discovered  new  and 
profounder  depths  of  hypocrisy  and  falsehood.  By  the  eternal  love 
of  truth  that  binds  man  to  his  Maker  we  protest,  and  we  will  protest 
to  the  end,  against  the  injustice  that  would  destroy  our  character. 
"We  can  bear  our  poverty ;  fortitude  and  patience  will  overcome  our 
privations.  Energy  will  restore  our  desolated  fields,  industry  will  re- 
pair our  lost  homes,  economy  will  recover  our  wasted  wealth,  time 
will  heal  our  great  sorrows ;  but  for  lost  and  abandoned  character 
there  is  no  future,  no  regeneration.  No  people  have  ever  survived 
the  death  of  their  character.  Nothing  can  relume  that  luster  when 
once  extinguished.  Let  us  thank  God  that  the  people  of  the  South, 
in  the  wreck  and  darkness  of  their  disasters,  still  cherish  and  defend 
with  deep  and  fervent  devotion  their  honor.  It  is  the  cloud  of  light 
by  day  and  the  pillar  of  fire  by  night  that  will  preserve  them  in  the 
wilderness  of  their  troubles.  No  people  who  love  truth,  who  respect 
virtue,  who  cultivate  courage,  who  defend  freedom,  who  reverence 
religion,  can  ever  be  enslaved  or  degraded. 

Mr.  President,  if  I  desired  to  see  the  two  great  divisions  of  the 
Republic — the  North  and  the  South — forever  alienated  and  antago- 
nistic, if  I  desired  to  reopen  and  deepen  and  widen  the  bitter  gulf 
between  them,  if  I  wished  to  plant  the  ineradicable  seeds  of  hatred, 
revenge,  and  vindictive  passions  in  the  hearts  of   their  people,  I 


31 

should  puisne  the  course  of  the  republican  Senators  on  this  floor,  who 
have  denounced  without  remorse  the  people  of  the  South.  I  speak 
not  of  the  injustice  of  the  indiscriminate  aspersion  of  eight  millions 
of  people;  but  I  refer  to  the  thoughtless  impolicy  of  that  aspersion. 
If  Senators  desire  sincerely  the  harmony  of  the  sections,  is  relent- 
less vituperation  the  road  that  leads  in  that  direction  ?  Do  they  not 
consider  that  if  there  be,  as  they  charge,  those  at  the  South  who 
are  not  reconciled  to  the  Union  ;  if  there  be  discontented,  unhappy, 
misguided  men  among  us  who  yet  desire  to  continue  the  strife  of  the 
sections,  do  they  not  perceive  that  this  unjust,  sweeping  imputa- 
tion and  impeachment  of  our  whole  people  lays  the  foundation  for 
hostile  argument  to  the  Union  and  the  North?  Sir,  let  me  in  all  can- 
dor ask  what  reply  is  to  be  made  to  the  restless  and  passionate  dema- 
gogue at  the  South,  ay,  to  the  just  and  honest  son  of  that  devoted  sec- 
tion, Avho  shall  demand  of  me,  "  AVith  what  propriety  do  you  ask  us  to 
unite  in  heart  with  those  who  delight  to  abuse  and  to  vilify  us  ?  We 
are  doing  all  that  honorable  and  good  men  can  do  for  peace  and 
union,  and  we  are  met  with  denunciation  and  calumny.  It  seems 
that  nothing  can  satisfy  the  animosity  of  our  enemies.  Our  ruin 
has  only  excited  them  to  more  cruel  wrongs,  and  when  they  have  ex- 
hausted all  our  resources,  they  propose  to  destroy  our  reputation." 
I  confess  that  such  statements  are  difficult  to  answer,  and  were 
all  the  northern  people  like  those  who  so  misunderstand  and  misrep- 
resent us,  I  should  have  but  little  hope  for  the  future  of  my  country. 
But  happily  the  great  mass  of  the  North,  in  my  judgment,  respect  our 
motives  and  are  beginning  to  earnestly  desire  our  deliverance.  Ten 
years  of  devoted  suffering  at  the  South,  and  the  immense  difficulties 
that  surround  our  situation,  are  beginning  to  enlighten  the  northern 
mind  to  our  true  condition.  Their  sympathies  are  being  excited, 
their  sense  of  justice  aroused,  their  sensibility  to  their  own  interests 
awakened,  their  love  of  good  government  and  fear  of  its  overthrow 
alarmed,  and  their  confidence  reversed  in  the  wisdom  and  patriotism 
of  those  who  now,  at  the  expiration  of  a  decade  since  the  last  gun 
was  fired,  resort  to  the  "  soldier  and  the  sword  "  for  the  establishment 
of  law  and  order. 

But  to  those  who  in  patriotic  sincerity  ask,  "  How  I  can  daily  hear 
the  unjust  abuse  of  our  people  and  still  labor  and  hope  for  reconcilia- 
tion and  justice  without  yielding  to  indignant  resentment?"  I  will 
say  that  before  the  South  lies  a  great  duty,  a  duty  far  above  the  pas- 
sions of  the  day  ;  a  duty  whose  influence  is  to  descend  to  distant  gen- 
erations— the  duty  of  preserving  constitutional  liberty  and  of  vindi- 
cating and  maintaining  in  undiminished  glory  the  character  of  the 
southern  people.  The  success  of  that  duty  must  not  be  imperiled 
by  resentment  or  excitement.  In  the  presence  of  such  interests  the 
ordinary  emotions  of  the  human  heart  stand  rebuked,  aud  the  highest 
and  noblest  sentiments  of  our  souls  and  the  most  exalted  powers  of 
the  mind  are  summoned  to  exertion.  Before  such  a  duty  the  sacrifice 
of  passion  is  a  glory,  the  conquest  of  our  nature  sublime  honor. 
Nothing  can  secure  its  accomplishment  but  disciplined  virtue  and 
patriotism ;  the  subordination  of  impulse  to  that  chastened  wisdom 
and  devotion  which,  relying  on  justice,  truth,  and  reason  for  defense, 
leave  far  beneath  them  the  disordered  tempers  that  are  excited  in 
the  inferior  conflicts  of  life.  By  the  fate  of  our  people,  before  the 
sacred  magnitude  of  our  duty,  what  are  personal  or  party  irritations  ? 
I  disown  and  dismiss  them  as  not  approaching  the  dignity  of  our 
defense.  My  faith  is  in  the  justice  of  our  cause  and  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  truth  and  right.    No,  sir,  I  do  not  put  the  defense  of  the 


32 

South  upon  the  crimination  of  the  North.  I  place  it  on  higher 
ground.  I  found  her  vindication  not  on  imputation,  aspersion,  denun- 
ciation of  another  section,  but  I  plant  it  firmly  on  her  own  character 
and  reputation,  upon  her  integrity  and  truth,  upon  her  honor  and 
virtue,  upon  the  history  of  her  patriotic  services  and  the  candor, 
manliness,  and  good  faith  with  which  she  has  always  acted. 

Sir^'  I  have  received  since  this  debate  commenced  paper  after  paper, 
extract  upon  extract,  letter  on  letter,  with  statement  and  account 
in  summary  and  in  detail  of  violations  of  the  law  at  the  North  and 
of  unjust  expressions  to  the  South.  I  have  no  use  for  such  material. 
I  discard  it  altogether.  This  is  not  the  place  for  it.  Aggression  on 
the  North  is  no  justification  for  wrong  at  the  South,  and  the  South 
holds  such  a  policy  of  argument  in  scorn  and  contempt.  Justice  to 
her  character  demands  that  any  imputation  on  her  good  name  should 
be  met  and  repelled,  and  she  will  meet  and  repel  it  with  indignant 
truth.  Sir,  what  is  to  be  accomplished  by  this  mutual  and  recip- 
rocal denunciation  of  the  sections  ?  Will  it  elevate  our  character 
abroad "?  Will  it  dignify  it  at  home  ?  Will  it  confer  a  blessing  upon 
any  American  citizen?  I  had  much  rather  see  mutual  and  recip- 
rocal forbearance  and  commendation ;  mutual  and  reciprocal  desire 
for  the  improvement  of  the  sections ;  mutual  and  reciprocal  purpose 
to  render  justice  to  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  a  mutual  and  recip- 
rocal union  of  interest,  rights,  duties,  and  sentiments  for  the  common 
benefit  and  glory  of  all.  No,  sir ;  I  shall  send  no  firebrands  to  the 
South  to  incense  and  inflame  her  proud  people.  I  shall  send  no  pois- 
oned arrows  to  the  North  to  rankle  in  the  bosom  of  her  peace.  I  shall 
endeavor  to  hold  up  the  light  of  truth  to  both  sections,  that  each 
may  see  in  the  other  much  to  commend  and  something  to  forgive 
and  forget.  And  shall  unjust  assault  be  made  upon  any  State  of 
this  Union,  be  it  North  or  South,  I  shall  spring  to  her  defense  with 
whatever  of  courage  or  ability  I  may  have. 

Mr.  President,  an  immense  drag-net  has  been  cast  over  the  entire 
South  to  discover  some  fact,  some  circumstance,  some  fragment  of 
evidence  that  might  give  color  to  the  charge  that  the  southern  peo- 
ple were  unfriendly  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  utterly 
regardless  of  their  duty  as  citizens,  and  generally  violent  and  law- 
less. Telescopes  of  every  magnitude  have  swept  the  whole  southern 
horizon ;  microscopes  of  the  largest  magnifying  power  have  been 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  condition  of  the  South  and  every  atom 
subjected  to  their  influence  to  find  some  speck  of  latent  rebellion 
among  the  various  and  differing  tempers  of  an  impulsive  people. 
The  inquisition  has  been  thorough  and  complete.  Nothing  has  es- 
caped the  vigilance  of  our  watchful  guardians.  Nothing  has  been 
too  high  for  their  reach,  nothing  too  low  for  their  supervision.  Their 
analysis  of  all  the  alleged  |poisons  in  the  prostrate  system  of  the  South 
has  been  acute,  jealous,  and  comprehensive.  Their  opportunities  for 
conducting  this  searching  and  expanded  examination  have  fully 
equaled  their  anxieties.  Agents,  spies,  detectives,  informers — the 
mercenary  and  corrupt  instruments  of  power — have  gone  all  over  the 
South  to  discover,  invent,  and  expose  the  denounced  crimes.  Eleven 
thousand  postmasters  in  the  Southern  States  are  the  sentinels  of  the 
administration  party.  The  revenue  officers  by  hundreds  watch  with 
jealous  care  the  party's  interest.  The  judges,  the  attorneys,  the  mar- 
shals, the  clerks,  and  all  the  officers  and  their  assistants  and  subor- 
dinates in  the  United  States  courts  are  the  vigilant  guardians  of  the 
nation's  laws  and  peace.  Senators,  Members  of  Congress,  governors 
of  States,  members  of  State  Legislatures,  and  almost  every  office- 


33 

holder  in  the  South,  faithfully  collect  and  develop  every  fact,  inci- 
dent, and  circumstance  that  tends  to  prove  this  accusation  of  their 
party  and  upon  which  they  seem  to  think  its  existence  depends.  Able 
committees  have  been  appointed  by  Congress  to  investigate  these 
conditions  of  the  South.  Military  detachments,  are  stationed  all  over 
the  suspected  districts  of  the  South.  The  press,  too.  with  the  hundred 
hands  of  Briareus  and  with  the  hundred  eyes  of  Argus,  observe  and 
report  every  occurrence  of  general  interest.  Light  blazes  all  over  the 
scene.  Nothing  is  left  in  obscurity  or  doubt.  The  eyes  not  only  of  the 
Administration  but  of  the  whole  country  are  concentrated  on  the  South . 
And  now,  with  all  of  the  evidence  before  us,'let  us  determine  the  truth 
of  this  indictment  of  the  Government  against  the  country. 

I  do  not  propose,  Mr.  President,  to  rely  upon  the  presumption  of 
innocence  until  crime  is  proved;  that  just,  humane,  wise  rule  of  our 
law,  established  and  approved  in  all  enlightened  jurisprudence  for  ten 
'centuries.  I  wish  to  meet  the  allegation  upon  the  facts  before  the 
country.  With  the  permission  of  the  Senate  let  me  direct  your  atten- 
tion for  a  moment  to  the  State  of  Kentucky.  She  stands  first  on  the 
roll  of  the  impeached  and  prosecuted  States.  And  what,  sir,  I  repeat, 
what  is  the  evidence  against  that  proud,  patriotic,  gallant  State? 
Will  Senators  reflect  ?  The  conviction  and  condemnation  of  her  great 
people  is  demanded  upon  the  floor  of  the  Senate  upon  one  newspaper 
paragraph — a  solitary  half -column  in  the  single  issue  of  a  daily  paper — 
and  that  article  an  able  and  eloquent  protest  against  the  sentiment 
it  condemns.  Sir,  is  not  the  very  rebuke  of  that  popular  journal 
proof  that  the  enlightened  public  sentiment  of  the  State  is  against 
the  error  it  so  boldly  denounces  ?  Was  not  that  article  written  to 
correct  and  reform  the  very  abuse ;  and  does  not  that  argument  reflect 
and  represent  the  best  public  opinion,  the  opinion  of  the  intelligent 
and  moral  influence  of  the  country?  But  Senators  have  deluded 
themselves  and  endeavored  to  beguile  us  with  the  absurd  proposition 
that  a  newspaper  by  criticising  and  condemning  an  alleged  neglect 
of  the  law  convicts  a  State  and  her  people  of  disregarding  and  violat- 
ing all  law ! 

Mr.  President,  I  ask  with  all  respect  if  the  humblest  human  being 
who  walks  the  earth  would  be  restrained  one  moment  by  any  intelli- 
gent judge  in  all  Christendom  upon  this  testimony?  There  is  not  a 
magistrate  or  a  justice  of  the  peace  who  would  issue  a  warrant  on 
it.  In  all  judicial  history  an  indictment  was  never  found  by  a  grand 
jury  upon  such  proof.  And  yet  the  American  Senate  is  gravely,  pas- 
sionately, vehemently  asked  upon  such  a  pretext  to  condemn  one  of 
the  fairest  States  of  this  Union  as  disloyal,  violent,  and  lawless.  Sir, 
I  cannot,  I  will  not,  undertake  to  argue  such  a  proposition. 

Virginia  has  nearly  escaped  the  common  charge  made  against  her 
sisters.  Not  one  word  of  evidence  has  been  produced  of  disloyalty, 
hostility  to  the  Government,  or  of  any  unusual  prevalence  of  crime 
within  her  limits. 

The  honorable  Senator  from  Illinois,  it  is  true,  says  that  "  it  would 
not  interfere  materially  with  Virginia,  whether  certain  resolutions 
presented  to  her  Legislature  were  unconstitutional  or  not."  I  can- 
not restrain  my  astonishment  at  this  expression.  My  knowledge 
that  the  Senator  is  eminently  patriotic  increases  my  surprise.  Vir- 
ginia indifferent  to  the  Constitution,  while  she  holds  in  her  bosom  the 
ashes  and  cherishes  in  her  heart  the  memories  of  Madison  and  Mar- 
shall !  The  mother  of  Washington,  Jefferson,  Monroe,  Tyler,  Taylor, 
Scott,  Maury,  Thomas,  the  theme  for  a  jest,  the  subject  of  a  taunt! 
When  the  Senator  or  myself  or  thousands  like  us  shall  have  achieved 

3  K, 


34 

for  liberty  and  glory  a  shadow  of  what  Virginia  has,  then  a  jeer  or 
slur  upon  her  great  name  may  have  some  grace.  Has  the  Senator 
forgotten  how  much  this  nation  owes  to  Virginia  ?  He  must  for  the 
moment  Lave  forgotten  that  she  had  given  to  the  Union  the  States  of 
Kentucky,  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois.  Had  the  Senator  reflected 
that- his  own  State  was  one  of  the  monuments  of  Virginia's  patriot- 
ism these  words  could  never  have  fallen  from  his  lips.  Nor,  sir,  are 
these  a  tithe  of  her  contributions  to  the  Eepublic.  Sbe  has  borne 
seven  Presidents  who  at  the  head  of  the  Government  have  illustrated 
her  devotion  to  liberty.  She  has  nurtured  on  her  breast  the  soldiers 
who  have  covered  yours  arms  with  renown,  the  sailors  who  have 
brigbteued  your  flag  with  honor,  the  scholars  who  have  extended  the 
conquest  of  science  from  the  bottom  of  the  sea  to  the  verge  of  the 
stars.  Her  trophies,  her  memories,  her  great  names,  her  priceless 
virtues  are  before  the  world ;  they  are  the  brightest  jewels  of  the  Re- 
public, they  are  the  noblest  heritages  of  humanity.  I  pray  the  day 
may  never  come  when  the  great  spirit  at  Mount  Vernon  shall  not 
protect  her  from  insult  and  avert  her  from  error.  Her  proud  sorrows 
are  sublime,  and  like  her  glories  will  be  immortal.  When  she  sheathed 
her  sword  and  returned  to  the  Union  her  constancy  to  her  national 
duties  and  her  loyalty  to  her  sister  States  were  renewed  with  all 
their  original  vigor  and  truth.  Her  care  for  the  Constitution  and 
her  devotion  to  the  rights  of  man  had  never  slumbered.  Great  State ! 
Whatever  is  grand  and  patriotic  and  excellent  should  be  compared  to 
thee.  When  thy  name  does  not  inspire  the  respect,  excite  the  admi- 
ration, and  kindle  the  affections  of  American  patriots  the  love  of  lib- 
erty and  of  country  will  be  expiring  in  our  hearts. 

The  next  State  in  the  order  of  succession  as  you  advance  south  is 
North  Carolina.  I  listened  with  interest  to  hear  what  charges  were 
to  be  made  against  the  good  people  to  whom  I  owe  my  position  here. 
For  it  seems  to  be  the  policy  and  purpose  of  republican  Senators  to 
assail  every  Southern  State  that  is  under  democratic  government. 
Knowing  the  traditions  of  my  State,  and  that  she  had  always  resented 
and  resisted  oppression  and  tyranny  under  every  form,  I  was  not  en- 
tirely sure  but  that  upon  the  banks  of  the  Yadkin  or  Catawba,  or  in  the 
valleys  of  the  Cape  Fear,  or  among  the  hills  of  "  Old  Bute"  and  Ala- 
mance, or  up  in  the  bold  mountains  where  the  people  partake  of  the 
character  of  their  sublime  but  rugged  country  the  spirit  of  '76  had 
flamed  out  and  that  their  jealous  love  of  liberty  had  assumed  the 
form  it  did  a  hundred  years  ago.     But  this  anxiety  was  groundless. 

The  evidence  of  disloyalty  and  lawlessness  in  North  Carolina  con- 
sisted simply  and  alone  in  the  fact  that  the  district  in  which  an 
esteemed  friend,  Hon.  David  Schenk,  resides  and  where  he  was 
born,  and  his  ancestors  for  generations  before  him,  had  elected  that 
worthy  man  a  judge.  Why,  sir,  there  is  no  more  upright,  consci- 
entious, honorable  man  than  Judge  Schenk.  He  is  a  lawyer  of  emi- 
nent ability  and  attainments,  and  of  the  highest  moral  character  and 
of  uncommon  general  intelligence.  Without  disparagement  let  me 
assure  n^r  honorable  friend  from  Pennsylvania  [Mr.  Scott]  that  in 
all  the  attributes  of  a  just  man,  a  pure  judge,  an  enlightened  patriot 
Judge  Schenk  is  the  peer  of  the  Senator,  and  I  kuow  no  higher  posi- 
tion to  assign  him.  It  is  true  he  belonged  to  the  Ku-Klux  organi- 
zation, he  so  stated  himself,  but  he  expressly  avowed  that  he  had 
never  participated  in,  approved,  or  sympathized  with  any  unlawful 
act,  and  the  committee  of  which  my  friend  from  Pennsylvania  was 
the  honored  chairman  believed  him.  In  North  Carolina  we  enter- 
tain for  the  Senator  a  very  higli  regard ;  we  would  be  very  ungrate- 


35 

ful  if  we  did  not,  for  it  was  chiefly  due  to  his  magnanimity  that  the 
victims  of  the  Ku-Klux  delusion  were  released  from  prison.  The 
Senator  had  been  firm  and  vigilant  in  his  efforts  to  suppress  that 
organization,  but  that  accomplished,  he  was  as  generous  and  merciful 
in  exerting  his  just  influence  for  the  pardon  of  the  offenders.  I  am 
solicitous  that  my  friend  should  have  no  unjust  impression  of  our 
people  ;  and  let  me  inform  him  that  Judge  Schenk's  character  as  a 
lawyer  and  a  man  was  so  high  and  just  that  he  was  voted  for  by  the 
most  prominent  republicans  in  his  district,  among  others  by  Hon. 
Eufus  Barringer,  elector  in  1872  on  the  Grant  and  Wilson  ticket. 

I  hope  I  need  not  say  that  the  other  incident  alluded  to  by  the 
Senator  was  a  gross  and  cruel  exaggeration  and  that  the  conduct  of 
Judge  Schenk  was  entirely  justifiable.  I  will  not  tire  the  Senator 
with  details,  but  I  assure  him  that  the  action  of  the  judge  in  that 
whole  transaction  was  what  his  or  mine  or  any  proper  man's  would 
have  been  under  the  circumstances.  Mr.  President,  all  excitement 
in  reference  to  the  Ku-Klux  organization  in  North  Carolina  has  been 
so  completely  obliterated  that  the  republicans  have  elected  members 
to  the  Legislature  who  once  belonged  to  the  Ku-Klux,  and  our  peo- 
ple in  their  wisdom  and  magnanimity,  without  distinction  of  party 
have  buried  that  controversy  in  forgiveness  and  oblivion  forever. 

The  Senator  from  Illinois  in  his  ardent  crusade  against  the  South- 
ern States  paused  for  a  moment  as  he  crossed  the  limits  of  North 
Carolina  to  discharge  at  her  people  a  reproach  Avhich  he  will  find 
was  quite  without  foundation.  He  asked  with  an  air  of  triumph,  in 
which  some  tinge  of  ironical  mercy  seemed  to  mingle,  "  How  long  has 
it  been  since  we  have  had  this  glorious  peace  in  North  Carolina?" 
i '  Grant  told  you  that  you  had  to  stop,  or  he  would  make  you  do  it ; 
and  you  stopped  through  fear,  not  because  you  desired  it."  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, I  rejoice  that  there  is  peace,  profound  peace  in  North  Carolina 
with  all  her  people.  The  Senator  tells  the  country  that  it  is  the 
peace  of  "  fear,"  and  not  the  peace  of  the  will,  of  the  reason  of  the 
people.  Whence,  sir,  did  the  Senator  derive  his  opinions  of  the  peo- 
ple of  North  Carolina,  that  he  should  venture  the  assertion  that  they 
act  from  "fear"  and  not  from  their  judgment  and  disposition?  Is 
the  history  of  that  brave,  true  State  so  little  known  to  the  Senator 
that  he  could  commit  this  injustice?  If  he  had  studied  the  character 
of  her  plain,  truthful,  fearless  people,  he  could  not  have  so  wronged 
himself  as  to  utter  this  unjust  reproach.  Let  me  for  a  moment  re- 
fresh the  Senator's  historic  recollections  with  some  annals  of  North 
Carolina  and  see  if  I  cannot  convince  him  that  his  censure  of  that 
good  State  was  groundless.  I  will  read  from  an  author  the  most 
eminent  and  illustrious  of  all  Americen  writers — an  author  who  is  no. 
less  a  scholar  than  a  patriot — who  of  all  others  among  the  living  or 
the  dead  has  done  more  to  illustrate  American  character  and  incident, 
and  who  I  hope  may  long  live  to  enjoy  the  serene  evening  of  a  nobly 
passed  life.    1  will  now  read  from  Bancroft's  American  History: 

The  planters  of  Albemarle  were  men  who  had  been  led  to  the  choice  of  their 
residence  from  a  hatred  of  restraint,  and  had  lost  themselves  among  the  woods  in 
search  of  independence.  Are  there  any  who  doubt  man's  capacity  for  self-gov- 
ernment, let  them  study  the  history  of  North  Carolina ;  its  inhabitants  were 
restless  and  turbulent  in  their  imperfect  submission  to  a  government  imposed  on 
them  trom  abroad ;  the  administration  of  the  colony  was  nrm,  humane,  and  tran- 
quil when  they  were  left  to  take  care  of  themselves.  Any  government  but  one  of 
their  own  institution  was  oppressive. — Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States,  volume 
1,  page  467. 

******* 

North  Carolina  was  settled  by  the  freest  of  the  free  ;  by  men  to  whom  the  restraints 
of  other  colonies  were  too  severe. 


36 

But  the  settlers  were  gentle  in  their  tempers,  of  serene  minds,  enemies  to  violence 
and  bloodshed.  Not  all  the  successive  revolutions  had  kindled  vindictive  passions ; 
freedom,  entire  freedom,  was  enjoyed  without  anxiety  as  without  guarantees  ;  the 
charities  of  life  were  scattered  at  their  feet,  like  the  flowers  of  their  meadows. — 
Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States,  volume  1,  page  472. 

The  people  of  North  Carolina  would  neither  receive  a  stamp  man,  nor  tolerate 
the  use  of  a  stamp,  nor  suffer  its  ports  to  be  closed.  The  meeting  of  its  Legislature 
was  so  long  prorogued  that  it  could  not  join  in  the  application  of  the  Congress  ; 
but  had  there  been  need  of  resorting  to  arms  "the  whole  force  of  North  Carolina 
was  ready  to  join  in  protecting  the  rights  of  the  continent." — Bancroft's  History  of 
the  United  States,  volume  5,  page  369. 

The  people  of  the  county  of  ^Mecklenburgh  had  carefully  observed  the  progress, 
of  the  controversy  with  Britain ;  and  during  the  winter  political  meetings  had  re- 
peatedly been  held  in  Charlotte.  That  town  had  been  chosen  for  the  seat  of  the  Pres- 
byterian-  college,  which  the  Legislature  of  North  Carolina  had  chartered,  but  which* 
the  king  had  disallowed,  and  it  was  the  center  of  the  culture  of  that  part  of  the 
province.  The  number  of  houses  in  the  village  was  not  more  than  twenty  ;  but 
the  district  was  aleady  well  settled  by  herdsmen  who  lived  apart  on  their  farms. 

Some  time  in  May,  i775,  they  received  the  news  of  the  address  which  in  the  pre- 
ceding February  had  been  presented  to  the  king  by  both  houses  of  Parliament, 
and  which  declared  the  American  Colonies  to  be  in  a  state  of  actual  rebellion.  This 
was  to  them  the  evidence  that  the  crisis  in  American  affairs  was  come,  and  the  peo- 
pie  proposed  among  themselves  to  abrogate  all  dependence  on  the  royal  authority. 
But  the  militia  companies  were  sworn  to  allegiance ;  and  "how,"  it  was  objected, 
"can  we  be  absolved  from  our  oath?"  "  The  oath,"  it  was  answered,  l' binds  only 
while  the  king  protects."  At  the  instance  of  Thomas  Polk,  the  commander  of  the 
militia  of  the  county,  two  delegates  from  each  company  were  called  together  in 
Charlotte  as  a  representative  committee..  Before  their  consultations  had  ended  the 
message  of  the  innocent  blood  shed  at  Lexington  came  up  from  Charleston  and 
inflamed  their  zeal.  They  were  impatient  that  their  remoteness  forbade  their  direct 
activity;  had  it  been  possible  they  would  have  sent  a  hundred  bullocks  from  their 
fields  to  the  poor  of  Boston.  No  minutes  of  the  committee  are  known  to  exist,  but 
the  result  of  their  deliberations,  framed  with  superior  skill,  precision  of  language, 
and  calm  comprehensiveness,  remains  as  the  monument  of  their  wisdom  and  their 
courage.  Of  the  delegates  to  that  memorable  assembly  the  name  of  Ephraim  Bre- 
vard should  be  remembered  with  honor  by  his  countrymen.  He  was  one  of  a  nu- 
merous family  of  patriotic  brothers,  and  himself  in  the  end  fell  a  martyr  to  the 
public  cause.  Trained  in  the  college  at  Princeton,  ripened  among  the  brave  Pres- 
byterians of  Middle  Carolina,  he  digested  the  system  which  was  then  adopted  aad 
which  in  effect  was  a  declaration  of  independence  as  well  as  a  complete  system  of 
government.  "All  laws  and  commissions  confirmed  by  or  derived  from  the  author- 
ity of  the  king  or  Parliament,"  such  are  the  bold,  but  well-considered  words  of  these 
daring  statesmen,  "are  annulled  and  vacated:  all  commissions,  civil  and  military, 
heretofore  granted  by  the  Crown  to  be  exercised  in  the  Colonies  are  void ;  the  pro- 
vincial congress  of  each  province,  under  the  direction  of  the  great  Continental  Con- 
gress, is  invested  with  all  legislative  and  executive  powers  within  the  respective 
provinces,  and  no  other  legislative  or  executive  power  does  or  can  exist  at  this  time 
in  any  part  of  these  Colonies.  As  all  former  laws  are  now  suspended  in  this  prov- 
ince and  the  Congress  has  not  yet  provided  others,  we  judge  it  necessary  for  the 
better  preservation  of  good  order  to  form  certain  rules  and  regulations  for  the  inter 
nal  government  of  this  county  until  laws  shall  be  provided  for  us  by  the  Congress." 

In  accordance  with  these  principles  the  freemen  of  the  county  formed  themselves 
into  nine  military  companies  and  elected  their  own  officers.  Judicial  powers  were 
conferred  on  men  to  be  singled  out  by  the  vote  of  the  companies,  two  from  each  of 
them  ;  the  whole  number  of  eighteen  constituting  a  court  of  appeal.  The  tenure 
alike  of  military  and  civil  officers  was  "  the  pleasure  of  their  several  constituents." 
All  public  and  county  taxes,  all  quit  rents  to  the  Crown  were  sequestered  ;  and  it 
was  voted  that  persons  receiving  new  commissions  from  the  king  or  exercising  old 
ones  should  be  dealt  with  as  enemies  of  the  country. 

The  resolves  were  made  binding  on  all,  and  were  to  be  enforced  till  the  provincial 
congress  should  provide  otherwise,  or,  what  they  knew  would  never  take  place,  till 
the  British  Parliament  should  resign  its  arbitrary  pretensions  with  respect  to 
America.  At  the  same  time  the  militia  companies  were  directed  to  provide  them- 
selves with  arms,  and  Thomas  Polk  and  Joseph  Kenedy  were  specially  appointed 
to  purchase  powder,  lead,  and  flints. 

Before  the  month  of  May  had  come  to  an  end  the  resolutions  were  signed  by 
Ephraim  Brevard,  as  clerk  of  the  committee,  and  were  adopted  by  the  people  with 
the  determined  enthusiasm  which  springs  from  the  combined  influence  of  the  love 
of  liberty  and  of  religion.  Thus  was  Mecklenburgh  County,  in  North  Carolina,  sep- 
arated from  the  British  Empire.  The  resolves  were  transmitted  with  all  haste  to 
be  printed  in  Charleston,  and  they  spread  through  the  South,  they  startled  the 


37 

royal  governors  of  Georgia  and  North  Carolina.  They  were  dispatched  by  a  mes- 
senger to  the  Continental  Congress,  that  the  world  might  know  their  authors  had 
Tenounced  their  allegiance  to  the  King  of  Great  Britain,  and  had  constituted  a  gov 
ernment  for  themselves. 

The  messenger  stopped  on  his  way  at  Salisbury,  and  there,  to  a  crowd  round  the 
court-house,  the  resolves  were  read  and  approved.  The  western  counties  were 
the  most  populous  part  of  North  Carolina ;  and  the  royal  governor  had  flattered 
himself  and  the  king  with  the  fullest  assurances  of  their  support.  "  I  have  no 
doubt,"  said  he,  "that  I  might  command  their  best  services  at  a  word  on  any 
emergency.  I  consider  I  have  the  means  in  my  own  hands  to  maintain  the  sover- 
eignty of  this  country  to  my  royal  master  at  all  events."  And  now  he  was  obliged 
to  transmit  the  deliberate,  consistent,  and  well-considered  resolutions  of  Mecklen- 
burgh,  which  he  described  as  the  "  boldest  of  all,"  most  traitorously  declaring  the 
entire  dissolution  of  the  laws  and  constitution,  and  setting  up  a  system  of  rule 
and  regulations  subversive  of  His  Majesty's  government. — Bancroft's  History  of 
the  United  States,  volume  1,  page  370. 

At  "Wilmington,  North  Carolina,  the  sum  of  two  thousand  pounds  currency  was 
raised  in  a  few  days  for  the  relief  of  Boston ;  the  women  of  the  place  gave  liber- 
ally ;  Parker  Quince  offered  his  vessel  to  carry  a  load  of  provisions  freight  free, 
and  master  and  mariners  volunteered  to  navigate  her  without  wages.  Lord  North 
had  called  the  American  Union  arope  of  sand;  "  it  is  a  rope  of  sand  that  will  hang 
him,"  said  the  people  of  Wilmington. — Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States, 
volume  1,  page  73. 

Were  these,  Mr.  President,  acts  of  "fear"?  Were  these  patriots 
told  that  they  must  do  this  immortal  deed?  And  before  the  one  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  this  unparalleled  glory  has  returned  are  we  to 
hear  in  the  American  Senate  that  the  children  of  these  hold  patriots 
make  the  peace  of  "fear"?  No,  sir,  the  people  of  North  Carolina 
fear  nothing  but  to  do  wrong.  They  fear  God  and  they  have  no 
other  fear.  Her  history  is  before  the  world ;  it  is  modest  and  unpre- 
tending ;  her  people  have  preferred  to  tread  the  paths  of  virtue 
rather  than  the  heights  of  fame ;  but  they  have  always  done  their 
duty.  They  love  liberty,  and  they  do  not  fear  but  they  hate  tyrants. 
On  her  soil  the  voice  of  "independence"  in  America  was  first  raised, 
and  to  that  great  example  she  will  forever  stand  true.  Next  to  lib- 
erty her  people  love  justice ;  and  while  they  respect  law  they  despise 
unlawful  power.  Peace  prevails  throughout  all  her  borders — the 
fearless  peace  of  liberty,  justice,  and  law,  not  the  trembling  silence 
of  timid  slaves  nor  the  breathless  stillness  of  prostrate  cowards.  The 
light  of  peace  that  shines  on  North  Carolina  must  come  from  the  sun 
of  liberty ;  it  cannot  be  reflected  from  chains  or  the  sword. 

Let  me  assure  the  honorable  Senator  from  Illinois  that  he  will  find 
nothing  in  the  history  of  that  State,  nothing  in  the  character  of  her 
people  that  will  not  make  him  yet  prouder  of  the  blood  that  flows 
in  his  own  veins.  Grand  in  the  majesty  of  her  moderation  and  faithful 
to  all  her  duties,  there  she  stands  in  the  light  of  her  own  great  virtues 
'without  fear  and  without  reproach." 

But,  Mr.  President,  are  we  to  be  told  upon  the  floor  of  the  Ameri- 
can Senate,  this  forum  of  the  States — yes,  sir,  in  this  citadel  of  the 
States — for  it  is  in  this  Chamber  that  the  States  are  represented  as 
States,  equal  and  coequal,  are  we  to  be  told  here  that  a  great  State, 
one  of  the  original  and.  immortal  thirteen,  has  performed  an  obliga- 
tion not  from  a  sense  of  duty  but  through  fear  of  the  President  of 
the  United  States  ?  Sir,  such  sentiments  shock  me.  I  can  conceive 
no  more  melancholy  evidence  of  the  decline  of  liberty  and  popular 
government  in  this  country  than  the  prevalence  of  such  expressions. 
A  State  in  fear  of  the  President  and  that  condition  of  slavish  sub- 
jnission  a  subject  of  exultationm  the  mind  of  a  Senator!  Where  are 
we  traveling?  Are  not  these  "the  symptoms  of  approaching  despot- 
ism ?  How  long  will  republican  liberty  survive  when  the  States  of 
this  Union  stand  in  awe  of  the  President?    The  Constitution  makes 


38 

it  the  duty  of  the  President  to  see  that  the  laws  are  faithfully  exe- 
cuted, but  I  trust  the  day  is  far  distant  when  "fear"  is  to  he  one 
of  the  attributes  of  his  office.  I  thought  this  was  a  free  government 
of  consent,  of  affectiou,  of  interest,  and  not  the  stern  and  iron  grasp 
of  force  and  fear.  For  the  President  in  his  official  capacity  the 
American  people  should  hold  the  high  respect,  the  profound  defer- 
ence, the  serious  regard  for  authority  that  is  due  to  the  most  exalted 
office,  and  to  the  President  as  a  man  the  people  should  extend  that 
homage,  reverence,  and  affection  which  belongs  to  the  distinguished 
and  patriotic  citizen  who  should  possess  the  most  eminent  intellec- 
tual ability  and  moral  endowment,  exerted  in  the  service  and  for  the 
benefit  of  his  country.  But  fear  is  not  one  of  the  duties  that  we 
should  render  to  the  office  or  to  the  person  of  the  President.  Fear  is 
the  prerogative  of  tyrants  and  the  fealty  of  slaves.  It  is  not  the  sen- 
timent of  freemen,  who  should  walk  |he  earth  and  in  the  image  of 
their  Maker  look  up  to  heaven  with  no  fear  but  of  Him. 

South  Carolina  is  the  next  Southern  State.  She  has  escaped  en- 
tirely the  animadversion  of  Senators.  I  rejoice  to  see  that  illustrious 
State  enjoy  a  moment's  repose  from  her  persecutions.  The  inexorable 
ascendency  of  the  republican  party  in  that  State  shields  her  from  the 
criticisms  and  assaults  of  its  friends  in  this  Chamber.  O,  that  it 
had  protected  her  wasted  and  bleeding  bosom  from  the  ravages  of 
its  spoilsmen  at  home !  Fortunate  and  thrice  happy  State.  The  repub- 
lican party  stands  guard  over  the  cradle  and  the  grave  of  secession. 
Poverty,  exhaustion,  and  a  helpless  minority  defend  you  from  further 
ruin.  But  beware,  proud  old  Commonwealth,  mother  of  Marion, 
Rutledge,  Pinckney,  Butler  and  Hampton  how  you  undertake  to 
throw  off  the  yoke  of  republican  domination.  The  effort  may  cost 
you  the  penalties  that  visit  Louisiana.  He  would  be  too  cruel  who 
could  say  one  word  to  disturb  your  brief  relief  from  oppression,  who 
could  stretch  your  perishing  form  on  the  rack  again  and  arouse  the 
resentments  and  fears  of  your  sleeping  tormentors. 

Then  comes  Tennessee.  Why,  sir,  at  the  very  mention  of  that  name 
I  see -the  eyes  of  Senators  open  wide  with  the  expectation  that  the 
overwhelming  flood  of  rebellious  proofs  will  crush  the  rash  friend  who 
undertakes  to  defend  that  insurgent  State.  But  what  are  the  facts? 
Passing  from  North  Carolina  iuto  her  daughter  State,  we  traverse 
East  Tennessee,  we  cross  Middle  Tennessee,  we  penetrate  the  western 
belt  of  the  State  to  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi,  and  what  evidences 
of  the  frightful  crimes  and  disorders  which  are  attributed  to  that 
State  do  we  find  ?  In  one  county,  in  only  one  of  the  eighty-five  coun- 
ties in  all  that  broad  State,  a  bloody  riot  has  taken  place,  in  which 
the  laws  have  been  shockingly  violated;  and  the  judges,  the  law 
officers  of  the  State,  the  juries,  the  governor  of  the  State  with  the 
authority  of  his  office  and  personal  influence,  and  the  moral  sanctions 
of  the  people,  are  all  earnestly  at  work  to  bring  the  offenders  to  jus- 
tice. Would  it  be  right,  just,  or  safe  to  charge  a  whole  State  with 
rebellious  and  desperate  crime  because  a  riot  had  occurred  in  a  single 
county  and  the  whole  judicial,  executive,  and  popular  powers  of  a 
State  were  being  exerted  to  punish  the  perpetrators  of  the  outrage 
and  make  them  an  example  to  the  country  ?  Woiild  it  be  just  or  fair 
if  crime  did  exist  in  one,  two,  or  three  counties  of  a  State  holding  a 
million  of  people,  and  the  whole  authority  of  the  State  exerted 
through  its  proper  officers  was  being  employed  and  employed  effect- 
ively to  suppress  and  prevent  it  ?  Would  it  be  just  or  fair  or  honora- 
ble to  charge  the  whole  State  with  sweeping  lawlessness!  In  Ten- 
nessee the  riot  has  submitted  to  the  laws  of  the  State  and  the  author- 


39 

ity  of  the  courts  is  undisputed  and  supreme.  No  intelligent  man  can 
doubt  that  the  violated  laws  will  be  fully  vindicated  in  their  utmost 
majesty  and  purity.  But,  sir,  a  seal  has  been  set  upon  the  loyalty  of 
Tennessee  which  our  republican  friends  cannot  deny.  The  Legislature 
has  just  returned  Andrew  Johnson  to  the  United  States  Senate,  whom 
neither  majorities  nor  tumults  nor  wars  could  drive  from  his  support 
of  the  Union.  With  all  her  daring  confederate  leaders,  the  State  of 
Tennessee  has  sent  to  the  Senate  of  the  country  the  defender  and  lover 
of  the  Union.  Andrew  Johnson  may  be  the  bold  and  defiant  rebel  of 
a  party,  but  from  his  unflinching  attachment  to  the  Union  of  the 
States  he  has  never  wavered. 

Let  us  now,  Mr.  President,  turn  our  attention  to  Georgia  and  in- 
vestigate the  temper  and  condition  of  her  people.  We  are  told  by 
her  able  and  honorable  Senators  on  this  floor  that  they  are  peaceful 
and  law-abiding,  that  they  recognize  their  duties  to  the  General  Gov- 
ernment, submit  to  its  authority,  and  respect  and  enforce  its  laws. 
These  Senators  are  with  and  of  the  people  of  Georgia.  They  are 
supposed  to  know  and  do  know  the  sentiments  of  their  constituents. 
They  are  supposed  to  represent,  and  do  most  ably  represent  the  opin- 
ions, wishes,  and  I  may  say  interests  of  their  people,  and  their  voice 
is  heard  here  and  heard  all  over  the  country  declaring  that  the  people 
of  Georgia  respect  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  abide  by 
all  of  its  amendments,  and  maintain  at  home  order,  good  government, 
and  general  quiet.  Have  you  analyzed  the  evidence  presented  to  the 
Senate  to  support  the  charge  that  the  State  of  Geergia  is.rebellious, 
disloyal,  and  oppresses  the  colored  race  ?  That  evidence  in  the  aggre- 
gate and  in  the  detail  consists  of  an  article  in  a  newspaper  and  a 
letter  from  a  solitary  witness,  uncorroborated  by  any  concurrence 
of  testimony  from  any  other  reliable  or  trustworthy  source.  The  Ku- 
Klux  organizations  we  are  told  were  dissolved  in  1870,  and  now  the 
evidence  upon  which  Senators  seriously  attempt  to  impeach  the  char- 
acter of  the  empire  State  of  the  South  is  the  effusion  of  one  issue  of 
a  newspaper  and  a  letter  from  the  unsupported  correspondent  of  a 
Senator. 

Can  snch  things  be, 

And  overcome  us  like  a  summer's  cloud, 

Without  our  special  wonder  ? 

Will  Senators  weigh  these  frail,  flimsy,  fleeting  shadows  against 
the  truth  of  Senators  avouched  here  with  all  the  sanctity  and  sol- 
emnity of  their  words  of  honor  as  Senators  ?  Mr.  President,  let  us 
pause  and  behold  the  pass  to  which  we  have  come.  A  State,  an 
organized  State,  a  State  of  the  American  Eevolution,  with  a  million 
of  people,  charged  and  condemned  by  the  American  Senate  upon  the 
evidence  of  a  few  hasty,  heated  lines  in  a  newspaper  and  an  unveri- 
fied letter  from  a  defeated  aspirant  for  office.  With  all  of  my  respect 
for  the  press  of  the  country — and  I  respect  it  as  the  great  representa- 
tive and  expression  of  thought  in  this  age — I  cannot  denounce  the 
whole  people  of  a  State  as  wicked,  violent,  and  revolutionary  upon 
one  editorial ;  nor,  with  all  the  charity  that  I  can  exercise,  can  I  con- 
sent to  damn  and  degrade  them  upon  the  slender  statement  of  one- 
witness  who  has  been  unfortunate  in  running  for  office. 

I  rejoice  that  the  beautiful  State  of  Florida  seems  undisturbed 
by  any  of  the  violent  disorders  which  we  are  told  distress  her  neigh- 
bors. I  apprehend  from  recent,  quite  recent  events  that  she  will 
continue  to  become  yet  more  quiet.  Our  republican  friends  have 
not  yet  made  a  presentment  against  the  land  of  flowers  and  the 
orange-trees.     O  no,  Mr.  President;  fifty  thousand  intelligent,  orderly,. 


40 

courteous,  respectful  visitors  of  both  sexes  go  from  the  North,  from 
the  rigor  of  your  winter,  to  find  genial  repose  in  the  bright  sun 
and  balmy  air  of  that  lovely  State.  They  come  for  health  and  pleasure 
in  the  fall,  and  return  in  the  spring  as  cheerful  and  as  happy  as  the 
birds  'who  make  their  annual  visit  to  the  South.  I  have  heard  of  no 
insult,  injury,  violence,  to  one  of  them.  They  pass  through  Virginia, 
the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia,  and  return  through  Alabama,  Tennessee, 
and  Kentucky,  and  they  bring  no  reports  of  offense  to  them  or  of 
crime  in  the  South.  And  yet  we  are  told  that  the  life  of  a  northern 
man  is  not  safe  in  the  South. 

Mr.  President,  with  the  letter  of  Hon.  A.  H.  Buckner,  of  Mis- 
souri, to  which  I  specially  invite  the  attention  of  the  Senate,  I  shall 
pass  over  the  State  of  Alabama.    I  will  now  read  that  letter : 

House  of  Representatives,  United  States, 

Washington,  D.  C,  January  25,  1875. 

Sir  :  I  was  much  surprised  to  hear  Senator  Sherman  lending  the  weight  of  his 
ch  aracter  to  the  slander  on  the  people  of  Louisiana,  uttered  by  General  Sheridan,  as 
to  the  number  of  murders  that  had  taken  place  in  that  State.  While  it  is  not  stated 
by  these  gentlemen  that  these  thousand  murders  were  political  assassinations,  the 
charge  has  no  significance  unless  they  design  it  to  be  so  understood.  I  venture  the 
opinion  that  it  will  be  found  to  be  an  atrocious  misrepresentation,  with  the  smallest 
amount  of  truth  to  support  it.  I  come  to  this  conclusion  from  the  testimony  ad- 
duced before  the  Alabama  committee  appointed  by  the  House  of  Representatives 
to  investigate  the  condition  of  affairs  in  that  State  during  the  late  political  campaign. 
You  will  recollect  the  letter  of  Hon.  Charles  Hays  to  Hon.  Joseph  R.  Hawley, 
specifying  numerous  outrages  that  had  taken  place  from  about  the  1st  of  July  to 
the  15th  of  September,  1874,  and  also  telegraphic  dispatches  to  the  same  effect  pub- 
lished in  the  northern  papers.  The  number  of  murders  thus  stated  as  having 
occurred  in  the  counties  of  Choctaw,  Marengo,  Sumter,  Pickens,  Greene,  and  Cof- 
fee, (all of  which  are  included  in  Mr.  Hays's  congressional  district  except  the  last,) 
and  which  occurred  within  the  space  of  two  months  and  a  half,  amounts  to  thirty- 
six,  to  say  nothing  of  twenty  or  thirty  wounded.  "With  the  exception  of  the  mur- 
der of  Billings  and  Ivey,  in'  Sumter  County — the  former  a  white,  and  the  latter  a 
colored  man — there  was  not  a  particle  of  evidence  before  the  committee  that  any 
such  killings  had  taken  place  in  either  of  these  counties,  and  they  were  proved  to 
be  unfounded  as  far  as  a  negative  can  be. 

I  was  of  the  sub-committee  that  examined  witnesses  in  Sumter  County  for  four 
days — near  the  center  of  these  alleged  outrages — and  with  the  exceptions  I  have 
mentioned  no  witness  stated  that  any  such  homicides,  or  any  homicides  at  all,  had 
occurred  in  these  counties,  as  stated  in  the  Hawley  letter  or  the  telegraphic  dis- 
patch referred  to.  The  evidence,  now  in  course  of  publication,  will  confirm  my 
statement  in  every  jot  and  tittle. 

But  if  by  murders  is  to  be  understood  all  homicides  of  everv  description,  includ- 
ing the  killing  of  negroes  by  negroes,  and  the  justifiable  killing  of  negroes  and 
white  men  in  the  perpetration  of  a  felony,  such  as  robbery,  arson,  burglary,  rape, 
&c,  then  there  may  be  some  semblance  of  truth  in  this  statement  of  General  Sher- 
idan, indorsed  by  Senator  Sherman.  I  was  informed  by  a  gentleman  in  Montgom- 
ery County,  Alabama,  that  at  the  time  we  were  there  the  jail  of  the  county  con- 
tained upward  of  one  hundred  prisoners  awaiting  trial,  principally  for  felony ;  that 
all  were  negroes  except  one  or  two,  and  that  there  were  not  less  than  a  dozen  mur- 
ders in  that  county  during  the  year  1874,  and  all  of  them  committed  by  negroes 
upon  negroes.  This  county  has  a  large  republican  majority  and  has  been  entirely 
under  the  control  of  the  negroes  since  reconstruction.  I  apprehend  that  a  thorough 
investigation  as  to  these  thousand  murders  in  Louisiana  will  show  that  at  least 
four-fifths  of  all  that  have  been  committed  have  no  political  significance  whatever, 
which  General  Sheridan  knows,  if  Senator  Sherman  does  not. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be,  your  obedient  servant, 

A.  H.  BTJCKNER. 

Hon.  A.  G.  Thurman. 

Judge  Buckner,  au  honored  member  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, was  one  of  a  committee  sent  by  the  House  to  investigate  the 
condition  of  the  State  of  Alabama.  From  his  letter  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  crimes  in  Alabama  are  mostly  committed  by  the  negroes. 
This  evidence  may  be  regarded  as  having  'all  the  force  of  official  irn- 
X^ression. 


41 

In  reference  to  Mississippi,  there  is  no  evidence  of  any  violence  by 
the  white  people  except  in  the  city  of  Vicksburgh.  The  events  there 
have  been  laid,  before  the  country,  and  I  hardly  think  the  people  of 
an  entire  State  should  be  condemned  and  the  State  itself  be  "dis- 
established" for  the  act  of  a  hundred  men  in  one  place.  For  three 
years  in  the  great  State  of  Mississippi  there  has  been  one  riot  which 
is  charged,  justly  or  unjustly  I  shall  not  determine,  on  her  white 
people.  Where  is  the  evidence  of  widespread  conspiracy,  rebellion, 
and  murder  against  the  Government  and  the  friends  of  the  Union? 

As  to  the  State  of  Arkansas,  I  beg  to  refer  the  Senate  to  the  very 
able  report  of  the  committee  of  the  House,  of  which  Judge  Poland, 
of  Vermont,  who  once  with  no  ordinary  distinction  held  a  seat  in  this 
Chamber,  is  the  chairman.    I  will  read  from  Mr.  Poland's  report : 

The  new  constitution  we  regard  as  republican  in  form,  and  in  many  respects  an 
improvement  upon  that  of  1868.  Some  question  has  been  made  as  to  the  dropping 
from  the  declaration  of  principles  some  of  the  professions  of  loyalty  contained  in 
the  old  constitution.  Most  of  the  reconstruction  constitutions  contained  rather  a 
surplusage  on  that  subject.    "We  think  the  substance  has  been  retained. 

The  committee  are  satisfied  that  the  convention  to  frame  the  constitution,  and 
the  constitution  itself,  were  voted  for  and  are  satisfactory  to  the  majority  of  the 
voters  and  people  of  the  State.  The  State  officers  were  certainly  elected  by  a  ma- 
jority of  votes  cast,  and  we  think  by  a  majority  of  the  votes  in  the  State.  1?he  con- 
dition of  the  State  has  been  as  peaceful  since  the  new  government  was  inaugurated 
as  it  ever  has  been ;  acts  of  violence  have  been  very  few  indeed.  It  is  alleged  that 
this  is  all  because  they  are  now  under  congressional  investigation  and  on  their 
"good  behavior." 

The  committee  believe  that  in  Arkansas  the  mass  of  the  people  on  both  sides  are 
inclined  to  peace  and  good  government,  and  to  allow  all  the  enjoyment  of  their 
legal  rights ;  but  there  are  a  class  of  men,  the 

*  *  *  *  *  *  * 

Tour  committee  cannot  find  any  solid  ground  on  which  to  stand  to  say  the  Gen- 
eral Government  can  or  ought  to  interfere  ;  and  no  amount  of  irregularity  in  the 
processes  by  which  this  state  of  things  was  brought  about  furnish  just  reason  for 
doing  so.  The  committee  believe  that,  upon  principles  now  well  established,  all 
these  defects  and  irregularities  in  the  proceedings  must  be  regarded  as  cured  by 
the  verdict  of  the  people. 

It  will  be  seen  that  since  the  overthrow  of  the  attempted  usurpa- 
tion of  Brooks  and  the  establishment  of  a  just  and  conservative  gov- 
ernment in  that  State,  quiet  and  tranquillity  prevail,  the  law  is  main- 
tained, and  liberty  enjoyed. 

I  have  inquired  with  some  concern  of  the  Senators  and  Represent- 
atives of  the  State  of  Texas  in  reference  to  the  condition  of  their 
people.  I  am  informed  that  the  people  of  that  State  are  enjoying  a 
high  degree  of  prosperity.  Both  of  her  Senators  inform  me  that  their 
State  is  annually  receiving  an  immigration  estimated  at  two  hundred 
thousand  souls.  What  better  testimony  of  the  prosperity  of  a  people 
and  their  peaceful  and  law-abiding  habits  and  their  respect  for  the 
Government  and  their  tolerance  of  northern  opinions  than  the  estab- 
lished fact  that  from  one  to  two  hundred«thousand  settlers,  largely 
from  the  Northern  States,  annually  find  homes  among  them? 

And  now,  we  approach  the  State  of  Louisiana.  Yes,  I  say  the  State 
of  Louisiana.  You  remember  her,  I  remember  her  as  a  State ;  and 
we  hope  she  may  yet  be  a  State.  Yes,  prostrated,  disfranchised,  an 
armed  soldiery  holding  her  capital,  she  is  still  a  State ;  and  no  power 
on  earth  can  deprive  her  of  her  rights,  powers,  position  as  a  State ; 
neither  her  own  suicidal  hand  nor  all  the  powers  of  the  United 
States  combined.  If  there  is  anything  true  in  the  theory  and  princi- 
ples of  this  Government,  it  is  that  the  existence  of  a  State  is  as  in- 
destructible as  the  Government  itself ;  but,  I  will  not  now  discuss 
this  question.  We  are  told  that  "bloody  treason  flourishes"  all 
over  that  once  proud  and  happy  State ;  the  domination  of  a  white 


42 

minority  over  a  "black  majority  ;  the  intimidations  of  a  black  majority 
supported  by  the  Army  and  upheld  by  the  patronage  of  the  United 
States  Government,  by  a  white  minority  restrained,  arrested,  de- 
pressed by  that  same  Army  and  influence.  There  have  been  bloody 
riots  committed  in  Louisiana.  I  do  not  defend  them;  but  let  us  ex- 
amine them,  their  numbers  and  their  magnitude.  We  should  no  doubt 
differ  about  their  causes  and  origin.  We  are  told  by  Senators  that 
the  "  whole  people  are  in  revolt  "  and  that  there  are  "  seas  of  blood," 
"  thousands  of  murders"  there. 

I  invoke  the  attention  of  the  Senate.  There  have  occurred  in  the 
State  of  Louisiana  since  the  election  in  1868  a  riot  at  Colfax,  a  riot 
at  Coushatta,  and  the  revolution  against  the  Kellogg  usurpation  at 
New  Orleans.  I  accept  the  statement  of  republican  Senators.  Three 
riots,  if  you  will,  in  that  State  since  1868,  disconnected  with  each 
other,  occurring  in  widely  separated  districts,  under  entirely  differ- 
ent circumstances,  and  neither  having  any  reference  to  any  election 
that  was  to  succeed  it — no  common  interest  between  them.  Upon 
this  statement  of  fact,  we  are  asked,  seriously  asked,  to  pronounce 
that  the  people  of  Louisiana  are  in  armed  rebellion  and  conspiring 
to  overthrow  the  national  authority  and  all  government  and  substi- 
tute anarchy  and  "  the  slave  power." 

Against  ail  of  these  charges,  against  all  this  denunciation,  against 
all  this  cry  of  "organized  political  crime,"  against  and  as  everlast- 
ing answer  and  refutation  and  rebuke  of  its  cruel  injustice,  I  pre- 
sent one  paragraph  from  the  calm,  able,  patriotic  report  of  Messrs. 
Foster,  Phelps,  and  Potter,  the  sub-committee  of  the  House  of 
Kepresentatives  sent  to  see  and  hear  for  themselves  the  facts  in  Lou- 
isiana.    Here  is  what  they  say : 

Indeed,  in  our  judgment  the  substantial  citizens  of  the  State  "will  submit  to  any 
fair  determination  of  the  question  of  the  late  elections,  or  to  anything  by  which 
they  can  secure  a  firm  and  good  government.  What  they  seek  is  peace  and  an 
opportunity  for  prosperity ;  to  that  end  they  will  support  any  form  of  government 
that  will  afford  them  just  protection  iu  their  business  and  personal  relations.  In 
their  distress  they  have  got  beyond  any  mere  question  of  political  party.  They  regard 
themselves  as  practically  without  government  and  ■without  the  power  to  form  one. 

To  that  statement  I  call  your  attention  and  the  attention  of  the 
American  people.  "In  their  distress  they  have  got  beyond  any  mere  ques- 
tion of  political  party."  In  these  few  words  there  is  an  eloquence  of 
argument  and  fact  far  above  the  power  of  speech.  What  must  be 
the  extent,  the  depth,  the  agony  of  that  "  distress  "  which  goes  far 
"  beyond  political  party."  It  is  the  "  distress  "  of  homes,  for  families, 
for  life,  for  liberty.  It  is  the  "  distress"  which  only  those  can  feel 
who  on  the  deck  of  some  burning  and  sinking  vessel,  amid  the  despair- 
ing faces  and  prayers  of  wives  and  children,  hear  the  last  signal-gun 
that  tells  them  they  are  going  down  to  rise  no  more. 

I  have  thus  attempted  at  the  peril  of  being  very  tedious  to  review 
the  condition  of  the  Southern  States  in  the  light  which  the  evidence 
furnished  by  the  republican  party  presents  it.  I  think  I  may  with 
candor  rest  the  case  of  the  South  here  without  pleading  her  immense 
defenses,  her  overwhelming  justifications,  her  mitigations  of  nature 
that  appeal  Avith  the  force  of  justice  to  the  universal  sense  of  right 
and  reason  of  mankind. 

In  thus  vindicating  the  Southern  States  let  me  not  be  misunder- 
stood. L  have  done  so  from  an  anxious  desire  to  dispel  the  imputa- 
tions against  them.  But  it  is  not  the  duty  nor  the  right  of  any 
Senator  to  institute  an  inquisition  into  the  character  or  conduct  of 
any  State  of  this  Union.  The  Constitution  defines  the  duties  of  the 
United  States  in  this  respect,  but  it  has  not  made  and  I  trust  never 


43 

will  make  Congress  an  inquisitorial  court  to  investigate  the  States. 
Sir,  is  the  Senate  to  become  the  star  chamber  of  the  Republic,  in 
which  States  are  to  be  immolated  and  their  people  put  on  the  rack  ? 
Was  it  for  this  that  these  columns  were  reared,  that  this  emblazoned 
roof  pours  down  its  gilded  light  on  our  heads  ?  If  this  is  to  be, 
Senators,  let  us  leave  this  Chamber  and  with  stooping  and  muffled 
forms  descend  to  the  gloomy  and  dismal  basement  of  the  Capitol, 
there  to  revive  the  examples  of  Venice. 

Consider  the  conditiou  of  the  Southern  States  immediately  after 
the  war  and  what  a  spectacle  do  we  behold !  There  were  twelve 
States  embracing  an  area  of  over  eight  hundred  thousand  square 
miles,  larger  than  Great  Britain,  France,  Germany,  Spain,  Austria, 
Switzerland,  Belgium,  and  Holland  combined,  with  a  population 
of  twelve  millions,  two-thirds  of  which  were  whites  aud  one 
third  recent  slaves.  The  peace  in  1865  succeeded  a  frightful  civil 
war  of  four  years'  duration  in  which  over  a  million  and  a  half  of  men 
were  engaged  in  armed  conflict  and  all  the  terrible  passions  of  sec- 
tional strife  were  excited.  The  war  ended  with  an  upheaval  and 
transformation  unprecedented  in  all  time.  Systems  as  old  as  the 
settlement  of  the  country  and  deeply  rooted  in  the  very  foundations 
of  the  structure  of  the  South  were  suddenly  subverted  and  abolished ; 
government,  society,  the  established  order  of  labor  and  capital,  the 
organic  laws  of  States,  their  relations  to  the  General  Government, 
and  the  whole  frame-work  of  material,  moral,  social,  and  political 
proportion  were  overturned  and  demolished. 

I  recall  in  all  history  no  example  of  such  complicated  wreck  and 
confusion.  Four  millions  of  slaves,  one-half  the  population,  totally 
unfitted  for  self-government,  were  suddenly  set  at  liberty  and  in- 
vested with  all  political  power.  A  great  army  had  dissolved,  and  its 
soldiers,  accustomed  to  the  camp  for  years,  returned  to  their  homes 
to  find  them  in  ashes  and  their  country  without  fixed  laws.  And  for 
years,  either  from  adverse  seasons  or  mistaken  husbandry  or  capri- 
cious labor,  or  all  combined,  the  very  earth  refused  her  beneficent 
increase  to  our  stricken  people. 

TTnfenced  desolation 
Had  left  us  as  naked  as  the  vulgar  air. 

I  will  not  lift  the  veil  from  the  picture  of  our  social  suffering. 
There  was  not  a  board  in  all  our  land  that  had  not  fasted ;  there 
was  not  a  fireside  in  all  the  South  from  which  some  loved  face  was 
not  missing ;  there  was  not  a  heart  in  all  the  South  that  had  not 
bled.  Senators,  may  you  and  your  prosperous  people  never  learn 
by  your  own  experience  the  extremity  of  our  afflictions.  I  have 
thought  how  to  describe  it;  I  am  powerless  to  do  it  justice  with 
speech. 

I  speak  the  simple  truth  when  I  declare  that  had  I  seen  at  the  con- 
clusion of  the  war  the  sea  of  dark  and  bitter  troubles  through  which 
we  had  to  pass,  I  should  have  despaired  of  the  fate  of  my  country 
and  regarded  the  continuance  of  life  as  a  doubtful  blessing.  A  peo- 
ple exhausted  by  war  and  broken  down  by  anguish  were  to  try  again 
the  experiment  of  self-government  for  themselves.  They  were  to 
test  the  capacity  of  a  new  race  for  self-government,  they  were  to  de- 
termine the  question  of  labor  in  all  its  forms,  and  they  were  to  con- 
duct these  trials  at  the  same  time  and  on  the  same  field  with  that 
other  grander  trial  of  the  capacity  of  different  races  to  live  together 
in  harmony  as  political  equals.  These  were  some  of  the  difficulties 
the  South  had  to  confront.  And,  Mr.  President,  had  you  then  done  as 
you  ought  to  have  done — and  I  must  say  right  here  what  I  do  think — 


44 

had  you  extended,  your  right  hand  to  the  South  in  this  hour  of  sorest 
trial,  had  you  treated  her  people  with  magnanimity,  had  you  given 
them  your  confidence  as  countrymen  and  brothers,  the  attachment 
and  the  gratitude  of  that  people  to  you  and  the  Union  would  have 
been  boundless. 

But  Senators  remind  us  of  the  magnanimity  of  the  Government. 
Holding  that  quality  to  be  the  crown  of  all  the  virtues,  I  should  be 
pleased  to  recognize  it  in  the  conduct  of  the  Government  toward 
the  Southern  States.  It  has  been  exercised  in  all  our  relations  with 
others ;  it  has  been  manifested  toward  the  Indians ;  it  has  been 
manifested  toward  all  our  feebler  neighbors  ;  it  has  expressed  itself 
in  sympathy  for  all  the  oppressed  people  of  the  earth.  But  was 
it  magnanimous,  was  it  wise  or  politic,  when  the  South  was  in  the 
condition  I  have  just  described,  to  extort  from  her  poverty  a  cotton 
tax  of  $70,000,000,  now  almost  universally  admitted  to  be  unconsti- 
tutional ?  Was  it  magnanimous,  wise,  or  politic,  in  your  amendments 
to  the  Constitution,  while  you  bestowed  all  political  and  civil  rights 
on  those  who  had  been  our  slaves  to  disfranchise  without  discrimina- 
tion every  human  being  in  the  South  who  had  ever  been  trusted 
by  his  people  ?  And,  let  me  ask  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  if 
it  is  magnanimous,  grateful,  patriotic,  or  honorable  to  deny  to  the 
surviving  soldiers  of  the  war  of  1812  who  live  in  the  South  the  pen- 
sion of  the  Government?  Sir,  in  this  debate  we  have  heard  much  of 
Jackson  and  the  glory  of  New  Orleans,  and  the  heart  of  the  nation 
swells  with  gratitude  and  pride  when  the  8th  of  January,  1815,  is 
mentioned.  Is  it  possible  that  the  brave  comrades  of  Jackson  on  that 
glorious  day,  now  past  four  score  years,  tottering  to  their  graves,  are 
dishonored  by  the  country  they  gave  their  blood  to  defend  ?  Sena- 
tors, let  not  this  reproach  longer  dishonor  the  justice,  gratitude,  and 
glory  of  the  American  people.  This  is  not  the  magnanimity  that 
conquers  hearts. 

But  let  it  be  recorded  to  the  imperishable  and  transcendent  glory 
of  the  South  that  amid  all  this  ruin,  revolution,  eclipse,  and  dark- 
ness her  great  people,  as  a  people,  never  once  lost  their  self-control, 
forgot  their  duty,  violated  their  moderation,  or  broke  any  of  the  re- 
straints of  law  or  honor.  But  let  it  also  be  written  to  their  undying 
and  supreme  renown  that  amid  these  speechless  calamities  they  have 
cherished  and  preserved  in  unquenchable  light  their  love  of  liberty  and 
constitutional  freedom.  Sir,  in  all  history  has  there  been  anything  like 
it  ?  Look  at  the  civil  wars  of  Marius  and  Sylla,  and  behold  their  fires 
smothered  to-day  but  to  burst  out  to-morrow  in  wilder  flames  and 
deeper  streams  of  blood.  Look  at  the  thirty  years'  war  of  our  great 
ancestry — the  houses  of  York  and  Lancaster.  Read  the  account  of 
the  recent  "  commune "  in  Paris  after  the  peace  with  Germany,  in 
which  in  three  months  ninety  thousand  Frenchmen  were  slain  by 
their  own  countrymen  before  the  passions  of  war  would  subside. 
And  then  turn  and  behold  the  "  great  southern  ocean,"  when  the 
storm  had  ended,  become,  with  all  its  power  and  depths,  almost  as 
calm  as  when  the  "  Sea  of  Galilee  "  responded  to  the  Spirit  of  Peace. 

Is  it  remarkable,  that  over  this  vast  deep,  stirred  by  the  storm  of 
war  and  strewed  with  the  wrecks  of  so  many  institutions,  institu- 
tions of  ages,  there  should  be  left  some  agitation  ?  Is  it  not  more 
remarkable  that  there  has  been  so  little  disturbance ;  that  the  great 
waves  of  war  and  passion  have  so  soon  and  so  universally  subsided  ? 
And  are  these  disturbances  and  outbreaks  to  be  taken  as  proofs  of 
general  dissatisfaction  and  violence  ?  We  might  as  well  fear  that 
because  the  volcanoes   on  the  Andes  occasionally  burst   out,   the 


45 

great  central  fires  were  about  to  break  their  earthbound  cere- 
ments. Crimes  have  been  committed  in  the  South ;  crimes  sometimes 
of  a  horrid  character.  I  condemn  and  denounce  them ;  "wherever 
the  violence,  the  terror,  the  tyranny  of  numbers  has  prevailed  over 
the  weak  and  defenseless,  I  utterly  abhor  and  execrate  it.  I  have 
no  sympathy  with  crime  in  any  shape  it  may  assume.  For  the 
authors  of  these  crimes  I  have  no  toleration.  They  have  accom- 
plished no  good.  It  is  impossible  under  the  providence  of  a  just 
Ruler,  that  crime  can  accomplish  good.  But  they  have  brought  un- 
just, cruel  reproach  and  aspersion  upon  whole  communities.  Mobs, 
combined  lawless  numbers,  are  not  of  or  with  the  South.  In  the  name 
of  the  courage,  manliness,  and  truth  which  -distinguish  the  name  of 
"  southerner  "  over  the  civilized  world,  I  repudiate  and  disown  such 
disgraceful  acts  as  utterly  abhorrent  to  our  sentiments  and  character. 
Senators  can  have  no  conception  of  the  gross  and  cruel  injustice  they 
perpetrate  against  the  South  by  the  charge  that  any  considerable, 
any  respectable  portion  of  our  people  can  be  guilty  of  such  infamous 
offenses.  I  have  already  demonstrated  that  such  is  not  the  fact. 
The  world  knows  it  is  not. 

But,  sir,  if  we  feel  proper  indignation  against  the  perpetration  of 
crime  in  the  case  of  individuals,  what  must  be  our  abhorrence  and 
scorn  for  the  authors  and  agents  of  that  system  of  gigantic  crime 
which  spread  wide  over  the  whole  Southern  States,  and  at  one  time 
threatened  to  involve  in  general  ruin  not  only  political  liberty,  but 
all  the  safeguards  of  civilized  society.  If  we  feel  just  and  stern  in- 
dignation against  the  massacre  at  Coushatta,  or  Colfax,  or  Trenton, 
what  must  be  our  surprise  and  passion  when  we  behold  the  State  of 
Louisiana,  with  her  half  million  of  people,  the  helpless  victim  of  a 
deliberate,  systematic,  organized,  and  accomplished  conspiracy,  which 
has  destroyed  the  value  of  her  lands,  broken  down  the  credit  of  her 
stocks,  paralyzed  her  commerce,  annihilated  her  industries,  prosti- 
tuted her  laws,  prostrated  every  honest  interest  in  her  limits,  trampled 
on  her  liberties,  and  brought  down  her  proud  name  to  the  dust. 
What  crime  can  be  greater  than  the  destruction  of  a  State,  whether 
accomplished  by  the  armed  soldiery  of  the  nation  in  the  capital  of 
the  State  or  perpetrated  by  the  slower  processes  of  the  poisons  of 
corruption  ?  Nor,  sir,  can  this  high  crime  be  mitigated  by  denuncia- 
tion, abuse,  calumniation  of  the  people  of  Louisiana.  The  attempt 
by  the  authors  of  these  calamities  to  tarnish,  to  blacken,  to  mutilate 
the  character  of  the  unhappy  and  distressed  people  whom  they  have- 
despoiled  and  oppressed  proves  the  "  guilt  of  their  own  great  quell." 
The  ancient  Carthaginians  cut  off  the  eyelids  of  the  noblest  Roman 
and  exposed  him  to  the  blazing  sun  until  he  perished  because  he  had 
not  betrayed  his  own  nor  his  country's  honor ;  but  amid  their  tortures 
the  barbarians  applauded  the  virtue  and  patriotism  of  Regulus,  and 
erected  on  the  plains  near  their  city  a  trophy  to  his  memory.  The 
countrymen  of  Hannibal  admired  the  stern  integrity  their  cruelty 
could  not  shake;  their  savage  policy  inflicted  the  rack,  but  their 
sense  of  justice  honored  the  duty  that  survived  it.  In  Louisiana  we 
have  witnessed  the  rapacity  and  cruelty  that  could  strip  and  starve 
its  prostrate  victims,  accompanied  with  the  infamy  that  sought  to 
destroy  the  character  it  had  vainly  tried  to  corrupt. 

And  now,  Mr.  President,  I  submit  to  a  candid  country  if  there  is 
any  just  ground  in  the  condition  or  conduct  of  the  southern  people  to 
justify  the  interference  of  the  Army  with  the  Legislature  at  New 
Orleans. 

Louisiana  was  first  admitted  as  a  State  in  this  Union  on  the  8th  of 


46 

April,  1812,  and  again  readmitted  under  the  reconstruction  acta  on 
June  25,  1868.  She  is  a  State,  her  Representatives  are  in  Congress, 
the  United  States  courts  are  over  her  people,  the  jurisdiction  of  na- 
tional laws  extends  throughout  her  limits,  she  is  in  all  the  elements 
recognized  hy  the  Constitution  a  State  in  this  Union.  In  November, 
1872,  a  general  election  for  all  State  officers  and  members  of  Con- 
gress was  held  in  that  State,  and  the  conservative  party  elected  their 
ticket  by  a  majority  of  about  ten  thousand  votes.  On  the  night  of 
the  5th  of  December  following,  under  color  of  a  void  order  issued  at 
midnight  by  a  corrupt  and  profligate  judge,  supported  by  regiments 
of  the  United  States  Army  moving  before  the  dawn  of  day,  a  fraud- 
ulent and  usurped  State  government  was  imposed  upon  the  people  of 
Louisiana.  I  will  read  from  the  report  of  Messrs.  Phelps,  Foster, 
and  Potter: 

The  general  condition  of  affairs  in  the  State  of  Louisiana  seems  to  be  as  follows  : 
The  conviction  has  been  general  among  the  whites  since  1872  that  the  Kellogg 
government  was  a  usurpation.  This  conviction  among,  them  has  been  strength- 
ened by  the  acts  of  the  Kellogg  legislature  abolishing  existing  courts  and  judges, 
and  substituting  others  presided  over  by  judges  appointed  by  Kellogg,  having  ex- 
traordinary and' exclusive  jurisdiction  over  jSolitical  questions  ;  by  changes  in  the 
laws,  centralizing  in  the  governor  every  form  of  political  control,  including  the 
supervision  of  the  elections ;  by  continuing  the  returning  board,  with  absolute 
power  over  the  returns  of  elections  ;  by  the  extraordinary  provisions  enacted  for  the 
trial  of  titles  and  claims  to  office ;  by  the  conversion  of  the  police  force,  maintained 
at  the  expense  of  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  into  an  armed  brigade  of  State  militia, 
subject  to  the  command  of  the  governor;  by  the  creation  in  some  places  of  monop- 
olies in  markets,  gas-making,  water- works,  and  femes,  cleaning  vaults  and  remov- 
ing filth,  and  doing  work  as  wharfingers ;  by  the  abolition  of  courts  with  elective 
judges,  and  the  substitution  of  other  courts,  with  judges  appointed  by  Kellogg,  in 
evasion  of  the  constitution  of  the  State ;  by  enactments  punishing  criminally  all 
persons  who  attempted  to  fill  official  positions  unless  returned  by  the  returning 
board;  by  unlimited  appropriations  for  the  payment  of  militia  expenses  and  for  the 
payment  of  legislative  warrants,  vouchers,  and  checks  issued  during  the  years  1870 
and  1872 ;  by  laws  declaring  that  no  person  in  arrears  for  taxes  after  default  pub- 
lished shall  bring  any  suit  in  any  court  of  the  State  or  be  allowed  to  be  a  witness  in 
his  own  behalf — measures  which,  when  coupled  with  the  extraordinary  burdens  of 
taxation,  have  served  to  vest,  in  the  language  of  Governor  Kellogg's  counsel,  "  a 
degree  of  power  in  the  governor  of  a  State  scarcely  exercised  by  any  sovereign  in 
the  world." 

I  will  also  read  from  the  report  of  Messrs.  Hoar,  Wheeler,  and 
Frye,  three  distinguished  republicans  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives : 

On  the  other  hand,  the  order  of  Judge  Durell  and  the  so-called  canvass  made  by 
the  returning  board  in  the  interest  of  Kellogg  seem  to  us  to  have  no  validity  and  to 
be  entitled  to  no  respect  whatever.  We  concede  and  declare,  as  emphatically  as 
any  person  can  desire,  the  unsatisfactory  character  of  the  methods  above  adopted 
for  arriving  at  this  conclusiom.  There  is,  in  our  judgment,  whatever  may  be  the 
opinion  one  may  form  from  the  statement  of  men  familiar  with  the  campaign  of 
1872,  or  from  the  registration  of  white  and  colored  voters,  no  legal  evidence  what- 
ever which  will  warrant  the  declaration  that  either  Kellogg  or  McEnery  was 
lawfully  elected. 

I  will  further  read  from  the  report  of  the  Committee  of  the  Senate 
on  Privileges  and  Elections,  then  composed  entirely  of  republicans  : 

3.  Conceding  the  board  was  in  existence,  and  had  full  authority  to  canvass  the 
returns,  it  hadfno  returns  to  canvass. 

The  returns  from  the  parishes  had  been  made,  under  the  law  of  1870,  to  the  gov- 
ernor, and  not  one  of  them  was  before  the  Lynch  board. 

It  was  testified  before  your  committee  by  Mr.  Bovee  himself,  who  participated  in 
this  canvass  by  the  Lynch  board,  that  they  were  determined  to  have  a  republican 
Legislature,  and  made  their  canvass  to  that  end.  The  testimony  abundantly  estab- 
lishes the  fraudulent  character  of  their  canvass.  In  some  cases  they  had  what  were 
supposed  to  be  copies  of  the  original  returns,  in  other  cases  they  had  nothing  but 
newspaper  statements,  and  in  other  cases,  where  they  had  nothing  whatever  to  act 
upon,  they  made  an  estimate,  based  upon  their  knowledge  of  the  political  complex- 
ion of  the  parish,  of  what  the  vote  ought  to  have  been.    They  also  counted  a  large 


47 

number  of  affidavits  purporting  to  be  sworn  to  by  voters  who  had  been  wrongfully 
denied  registration  or  the  right  to  vote,  many  of  which  affidavits  they  must  have 
known  tobe  forgeries.  It  was  testified  by  one  witness  that  he  forged  over  a  thou- 
sand affidavits,  and  delivered  them  to  the  Lynch  board  while  it  was  in  session.  It 
i.s  quite  unnecessary  to  waste  time  in  considering  this  part  of  the  case ;  for  no  per- 
son can  examine  the  testimony  ever  so  cursorily  without  seeing  that  this  pretended 
canvass  had  no  semblance  of  integrity. 

It  has  never  been  pretended  by  any  intelligent  or  respectable  man 
that  Kellogg  received  a  majority  of  the  votes  cast  in  Louisiana  in 
1872.  The  honorable  Senator  from  Indiana  [Mr.  Morton']  does  insist 
that,  by  an  "estimate"  of  what  lie  imagines  the  vote  ought  to  have 
been,  according  to  the  census  of  the  State  and  upon  the  "  line  of 
color,"  Kellogg  was  elected.  But  that  Senator  has  never  asserted  that 
Kellogg  had  any  legal  expression  or  sanction  of  an  election. 

Upon  this  question  I  refer  to  the  message  of  the  President  to  the 
Senate  in  reply  to  the  resolution  of  the  Senator  from  Ohio,  [Mr.  Thur- 
man:] 

It  has  been  bitterly  and-  persistently  alleged  that  Kellogg  was  not  elected. 
"Whether  he  was  or  not  is  not  altogether  certain,  nor  is  it  any  more  certain  that  his 
competitor,  McEnery,  was  chosen.  The  election  was  a  gigantic  fraud,  and  there 
are  no  reliable  returns  of  its  result.  Kellogg  obtained  possession  of  the  office,  and 
in  my  opinion  has  more  right  to  it  than  his  competitor. 

Thus  a  State  government  was  imposed  upon  the  people  of  Lou- 
isiana and  has  been  continued  over  them  for  more  than  two  years 
against  their  expressed  will  and  by  the  fraud  of  a  Federal  judge, 
sustained  by  the  Army  of  the  United  States.  The  facts  deposed 
before  the  Committee  on  Privileges  and  Elections  develop  a  system 
of  glaring  and  disgraceful  fraud  without  any  parallel  in  the  annals 
of  political  crime.  In  1874  the  people  of  that  oppressed  State  again 
with  determined  patriotism  entered  the  canvass  and  carried  the  elec- 
tion in  November  by  an  acknowledged  majority  of  the  popidar  vote, 
and  returned  a  majority  of  twenty-nine  conservative  members  to  the 
house  of  representatives  of  the  State  Legislature ;  and  again  a  corrupt 
and  fraudulent  returning  board  undertook  to  defeat  the  popular  will 
and  actually  reverse  the  majority  in  the  house  of  representatives. 

I  beg  to  refer  to  the  report  of  the  committee  of  the  House  again  on 
this  subject : 

"Whereas  both  branches  of  the  Legislature  of  Louisiana  have  requested  the  spe- 
cial committee  of  this  House  to  investigate  the  circumstances  attending  the  elec- 
tion and  returns  thereof  in  that  State  for  the  year  1874 ;  and  whereas  said  commit- 
tee have  unanimously  reported  that  the  returning  board  of  that  State,  in  canvass- 
ing and  compiling  said  returns  and  promulgating  the  result,  'wrongfully  applied  an 
erroneous  rule  of  law,  by  reason  whereof  persons  were  awarded  seats  in  the  house 
of  representatives  of  Louisiana  to  which  they  were  not  entitled  and  persons  entitled 
to  seats  were  deprived  of  them : 

Resolved,  That  it  is  recommended  to  the  house  of  representatives  of  Louisiana  to 
take  immediate  steps  to  remedy  said  injustice  and  to  place  the  persons  rightfully 
entitled  in  their  seats. 

By  which  it  will  be  seen  that  a  clear,  manifest,  undeniable  ma- 
jority in  the  house  of  representatives  was  overthrown  by  the  action 
of  the  Kellogg  returning  board.  I  also  read  from  the  same  report 
to  show  that  the  election  in  November,  1874,  was  fair,  lawful, 
peaceful : 

"We  hold,  therefore,  that  in  November,  1874,  the  people  of  the  State  of  Louisiana 
did  fairly  have  a  free,  peaceable,  and  full  registration  and  election,  in  which  a 
clear  conservative  majority  was  elected  to  the  lower  house  of  the  Legislature,  of 
which  majority  the  conservatives  were  deprived  \>y  the  unjust,  illegal,  and  arbi- 
trary action  of  the  returning  board. 

It  will  thus  appear  from  the  report  unanimously  made  by  the  com- 
mittee of  seven,  composed  of  five  republicans  and  two  democrats, 
that  the  conservatives  elected  a  majority  of  members  to  the  house  of 


48 

representatives  in  the  State  of  Louisiana,  and  that  the  Kellogg  re- 
turning board  undertook  to  unlawfully  supplant  that  conservative 
majority,  and  actually  returned  a  roll  giving  to  the  republicans  a 
majority  in  that  house. 

On  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  January  the  Legislature  was  to  con- 
vene and  organize  in  the  State-house  at  New  Orleans.  One  hundred 
and  two  members  who  were  returned  on  the  roll  of  the  returning 
board  assembled  in  the  legislative  hall,  of  whom  fifty-two  were  re- 
publicans and  fifty  democrats,  and  with  them  five  members  who  had 
the  parish  certificates,  prima  fads  evidence  of  their  election,  and  who 
had  not  been  rejected  or  enrolled  by  the  returning  board.  After  a 
temporary  organization  of  the  house  the  five  members  were  admitted 
to  seats  in  the  chamber  and  Mr.  Wiltz  was  elected  speaker.  Against 
the  admission  of  the  five  members  and  the  organization  of  the  house 
with  Mr.  Wiltz  as  speaker  there  was  earnest  protest  from  the  repub- 
lican members.  And  then  occurred  a  scene  which  has  but  few  pre- 
cedents in  the  history  of  free  governments,  and  these  all  conspicuous 
for  the  calamities  which  succeeded  them. 

General  De  Trobriand,  an  officer  of  the  United  States  Army,  in  the 
uniform  of  his  country,  entered  the  legislative  hall  of  the  State  of 
Louisiana,  and  with  a  file  of  soldiers  with  fixed  bayonets  ejected  from 
their  seats  five  persons  sitting  as  members  of  that  body.  There  is 
the  simple  statement  of  the  facts.  The  Army  of  the  United  States 
enters  the  hall  of  a  State  Legislature  and  expels  its  seated  members. 
Is  it  necessary  to  comment  on  the  character  of  the  act  ?  When  the 
day  comes,  and  I  pray  it  never  may,  that  such  a  deed  fails  to  strike 
the  American  people  with  amazement  and  indignant  horror,  our  lib- 
erty will  already  have  perished.  There  is  no  danger  to  our  free 
institutions  Avhich  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the 
constitutions  of  all  the  States  guard  with  so  much  vigilance  as  that 
which  must  always  arise  in  a  free  government  when  the  military 
interferes  with  the  civil  authority.  And,  sir,  let  it  be  forever  kept 
in  mind  that  this  jealousy  of  the  civil  government  is  just,  for  it  can- 
not be  too  watchful  against  the  ambitions  of  military  power.  The 
constitution  of  every  State  protects  this  fundamental  vital  principle, 
without  which  there  can  be  no  civil  government.  This  principle  is 
the  foundation,  the  life  of  all  representative  government.  Strike  it 
down,  and  nothing  remains  but  military  despotism.  Its  subversion  is 
the  end  of  liberty  and  the  establishment  of  arbitrary  power.  That 
is  what  it  is.  * 

As  a  Senator  from  North  Carolina  I  feel  instructed  to  protest  against 
all  military  interference  with  the  civil  authority.  That  State  for 
years  has  had,  in  addition  xo  her  constitutional  provision,  on  her  stat- 
ute-books this  law. 

21.  It  shall  not  be  lawful  to  call  or  direct  any  regimental,  battalion,  or  company 
muster  on  election  days,  or  to  assemble  armed  men  on  the  day  of  election  at  any 
place  appointed  by  law'to  hold  elections  for  electors,  governor,  members  of  Congress, 
or  members  of  the  General  Assembly,  under  the  penalty  of  $1,000,  to  be  recovered 
of  any  person  who  shall  call  such  muster  or  assemble  such  armed  men,  and  ap- 
plied one-half  to  the  use  of  the  informer  and  the  other  half  to  the  use  of  the  State. — 
Revised  Code  of  North  Carolina,  308,  309. 

And  to  her  honor  let  it  be  known  that  during  the  civil  war  her 
military  officers,  her  governor,  and  her  State  officials,  all  her  peo- 
ple respected  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  In  looking  back  over  a  life 
now  approaching  its  meridian,  I  recall  no  incident  of  a  public  charac- 
ter that  gives  me  more  pleasure  than  when  surrounded  by  thousands 
of  armed  troops  I  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  to  obey  that  writ  and  sur- 
render to  the  unarmed  officer  of  the  law  a  conscripted  soldier  from 
the  army.     So  jealous  has  North  Carolina  ever  been  of  her  liberties. 


49 

Among  all  the  safeguards  of  a  free  government  there  is  not  and 
there  cannot  he  one  more  essential  and  more  sacred  than  the  right 
which  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  secures  to  each  House 
of  Congress  and  the  constitution  of  every  State  secures  to  each  branch 
of  a  State  Legislature,  that — 

Each  House  shall  be  the  judge  of  the  elections,  returns,  and  qualifications  of  its 
own  members. 

The  nature  of  this  power  has  been  well  discussed  by  Mr.  Eeverdy 
Johnson — and  when  I  have  mentioned  that  name  in  connection  with 
constitutional  law  I  will  say  no  more.   I  will  use  his  words.   He  says  : 

It  is  a  power  essential  to  legislative  freedom.  The  history  of  the  legislative  de- 
partment of  Great  Britain  shows  that  this  power,  after  various  struggles  with 
kings  and  lords,  secured  its  permanent  place  in  Parliament  and  has  never  since 
been  called  into  question.  If  the  Legislature  cannot  delegate  the  power,  still  less 
can  it  be  exercised  by  the  Executive,  State  or  Federal.  To  suffer  it  to  be  done  by 
either  would  be  to  divest  the  Legislature  of  a  power  essential  to  its  own  integrity. 
To  permit  the  executive  of  a  State  to  purge  the  legislative  halls  of  members  whom 
he  may  suppose  not  to  have  been  elected  would  be  not  less  fatal  to  the  very  end  of 
such  a  department  than  to  give  him  the  power  to  select  its  members.  And  to  au- 
thorize the  President  so  to  interfere  would  be  a  total  violation  of  the  powers  ad- 
mitted to  belong  to  the  States,  and  of  the  limited  powers  conferred  upon  the  Gen- 
eral Government. 

It  will  do  us  no  harm  to  glance  for  a  moment  at  the  history  of  this 
great  legislative  right  and  see  with  what  care  our  English  ancestors 
have  established  and  preserved  it.  I  will  read  a  short  extract  from 
Hallam's  Constitutional  History,  a  book  which  I  commend  alike  to 
statesmen  and  American  soldiers  : 

Nothing  further  appears  on  record  till  in  1586  the  house  appointed  a  committee 
to  examine  the  state  and  circumstances  of  the  returns  for  the  county  of  Norfolk. 
The  fact  was,  that  the  chancellor  had  issued  a  second  writ  for  this  county,  on  the 
ground  of  some  irregularity  in  the  first  return,  and  a  different  person  had  been 
elected.  Some  notice  having  heen  taken  of  this  matter  in  the  Commons,  the  speaker 
received  orders,  to  signify  to  them  Her  Majesty's  displeasure  that  "  the  house 
had  been  troubled  with  a  thing  impertinent  for  them  to  deal  with,  and  only  belong- 
ing to  the  charge  and  office  of  the  lord  chancellor,  whom  she  had  appointed  to  con- 
fer with  the  judges  about  the  returns  for  the  county  of  Norfolk,  and.  to  act  therein 
according  to  justice  and  right."  The  house,  in  spite  of  this  peremptory  inhibition, 
proceeded  to  nominate  a  committee  to  examine  into  and  report  the  circumstances 
of  these  returns,  who  reported  the  whole  case  with  their  opinion,  that  those  elected 
on  the  first  writ  should  take  their  seats,  declaring  further  that  they  understood 
the  chancellor  and  some  of  the  judges  to  be  of  the  same  opinion ;  but  that  "they  had 
not  thought  it  proper  to  inquire  of  the  chancellor  what  he  had  done,  because  they 
thought  it  prejudicial  to  the  privilege  of  the  house  to  have  the  same  determined  by 
others  than  such  as  were  members  thereof.  And  though  they  thought  very  rever- 
ently of  the  said  lord  chancellor  and  judges,  and  knew  them  to  be  competent 
judges  in  their  places ;  yet  in  this  case  they  took  them  notfor  judges  in  Parliament 
in  this  house ;  and  thereupon  required  that  the  members,  if  it  was  so  thought  good, 
might  take  their  oaths  and  be  allowed  of  by  force  of  the  first  writ  as  allowed  by 
the  censure  of  this  house,  and  not  as  allowed  of  by  the  said  lord  chancellor  and 
judges.  "Which  was  agreed  unto  by  the  whole  house." — Hallam's  Constitutional  His- 
tory of  England,  volume  1,  pages  274,  275. 

There  is  an  example  of  the  independence  of  the  English  House  of 
Commons  and  of  the  respect  which  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  daughter  of 
the  haughty  Tudors,  rendered  to  a  majesty  greater  than  the  throne. 
Shall  the  Army  of  the  American  Eepublic  exhibit  a  disregard  for  the 
constitutional  privilege  of  a  Legislature  which  the  proudest  sovereign 
who  ever  wore  the  crown  of  Great  Britain  dared  not  infringe  ? 

But  we  have  been  told  on  this  floor  that  the  expelled  persons 
were  not  members  of  that  Legislature  and  that  they  had  no  right  to 
the  seats  which  they  occupied.  Sir,  is  the  Senate,  is  the  general 
commanding  the  United  States  troops,  is  the  governor  of  Louisiana, 
is  the  President  of  the  United  States,  to  j  udge  that  question  t  No, 
sir;  no.    Tbat  question  belonged  by  the  constitution  of  Louisiana 

4  R 


so 

exclusively  to  tlie  house  of  representatives  itself,  and  we  have  no 
power  to  decide  it  here.  Our  right  and  duty  to  judge  the  elections, 
qualifications,  and  returns  of  Senators  in  this  Chamber  is  not  more 
exclusive.  But  there  are  proofs,  strong,  positive,  certain  that  the 
conservatives  had  elected  a  large  majority  of  that  house  and  that  the 
act  of  the  returning  hoard  in  undertaking  to  defeat  that  majority 
was  unlawful  and  corrupt.  I  again  call  attention  to  the  report  of 
the  committee  of  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  and  their  resolution 
which  I  have  already  quoted. 

The  committee  unanimously  recommend  "that  immediate  steps 
he  taken  to  remedy  said  injustice  and  to  place  the  persons  right- 
fully entitled  to  their  seats."  Are  we  to  hear  after  this  expression 
of  an  able  and  patriotic  committee  that  the  soldiery  of  the  United 
States  which  unseated  and  expelled  lawful  members  of  a  State  Legis- 
lature was  only  suppressing  a  riot,  was  putting  down  domestic  Vio- 
lence, was  quelling  an  insurrection  ?  Was  the  convention  of  a  Legis- 
lature "duly,  peaceably,  quietly  elected  by  the  people"  a  riot, 
domestic  violence,  or  an  armed  insurrection?  Sir,  such  a  question  is 
not  susceptible  of  argument.  It  cannot  bear  the  light.  Is  not  the 
origin,  the  cause,  the  fountain  of  all  this  wrong  in  the  corrupt,  will- 
ful, wicked  conspiracy  of  the  returning  board  to  defraud  the  people 
of  Louisiana  out  of  their  second  election  ?  And  was  not  the  Army 
used,  in  the  words  of  Kellogg,  "to  clear  the  hall  and  State-house  of 
all  persons  not  returned  as  legal  members  of  the  house  of  represent- 
atives by  the  returning  board?  Of  this  returning  board  the  com- 
mittee of  the  House  say : 

We  understand  the  committee  to  be  unanimous  in  finding  tlie  fact  that  the  action 
of  the  returning  board  has  defeated  the  will  of  the  people  as  expressed  by  them  at 
the  polls  on  the  3d  of  November,  1874.  The  people  then  elected  to  the  lower  house 
of  their  Legislature  a  majority  of  conservative  members ;  a  portion  of  the  conserva- 
tive members  thus  elected  were  refused  their  certificates.  This  is  an  act  of  great 
injustice  to  the  individuals,  of  gravest  danger  to  the  State  and  free  government, 
and  ought  to  be  immediately  corrected  by  any  power  competent  to  correct  it. 

"Without  now  referring  to  other  instances,  we  are  constrained  to  declare  that  the 
action  of  the  returning  board,  on  the  whole,  was  arbitrary,  unjust,  and,  in  our  opin- 
ion, illegal ;  and  that  this  arbitrary,  unjust,  and  illegal  action  alone  prevented  the 
return  by  the  board  of  a  majority  of  conservative  members  of  the  lower  house. 

And,  sir,  what  do  we  now  witness  ? 

"We  hold,  therefore,  that  in  November,  1874,  the  people  of  the  State  of  Louisiana 
did  fairly  have  a  free,  peaceable,  and  full  registration  and  election,  in  which  a  clear 
conservative  majority  was  elected  to  the  lower  house  of  the  Legislature,  of  which 
majority  the  conservatives  were  deprived  by  the  unjust,  illegal,  and  arbitrary  action 
ofthe  returning  board. 

And  then  we  behold  the  Army  of  the  United  States  used  to  sustain 
"  the  unjust,  illegal,  and  arbitrary  action  of  the  returning  board  "  by 
expelling  members  from  the  legislative  hall  because  they  had  not 
been  returned  by  that  boardi 

And  we  witness  further,  now  when  days  and  weeks  have  passed 
since  that  interference  by  the  military,  these  same  members  excluded 
from  the  hall  and  the  injustice  thus  continued.  Is  this  violation  of 
the  most  sacred  rights  of  a  State  of  this  Union  to  be  perpetuated  ? 
Is  a  usurping  Legislature  sustained  in  authority  by  the  United  States 
Army  to  make  laws  for  the  people  of  Louisiana,  and  are  the  people 
expected  to  obey  and  respect  their  acts  ?  The  usurpers  in  Louisiana 
may  well  exclaim  with  the  bloody  Dane  : 

Forgive  me  my  foul  murder ! 
That  cannot  be ;  since  I  am  still  possess'd 
Of  those  effects  for  which  I  did  the  murder, 
My  crown,  mine  own  ambition,  and  my  queen. 
May  one  be  pardon'd,  and  retain  the  offense  ? 


51 

No,  sir,  the  smallest  remedy  that  is  clue  the  violated  constitution  of 
that  State  and  her  outraged  people  and  the  just  sentiment  of  Ameri- 
can freemen  is  to  allow  the  rightful  members  of  the  Legislature  to 
assemble  in  the  capitol  and  discharge  their  legislative  duty.  I  pro- 
test against  this  continuing  wrong,  and  every  hour  of  its  existence 
increases  its  enormity  and  solidifies  its  despotism.  Its  inception  may 
have  been  a  blunder,  its  prolongation  is  the  greatest  crime. 

In  the  light  of  these  facts  what  becomes  of  the  argument  that 
the  Army  of'  the  United  States  was  used  to  suppress  a  riot?  When 
the  soldiers  entered  that  hall  there  was  quiet  and  order  within  its 
walls.  All  disturbances  had  ceased  aud  legislative  duties  were  be- 
ing actually  performed.  M<r.  President,  there  was  a  way,  a  safe, 
constitutional,  just  mode  of  composing  all  the  difficulties  of  that 
day.  If  the  returning  board  instead  of  acting  "unjustly,  illegally, 
and  arbitrarily"  had  discharged  their  duty  fairly,  justly,  legally, 
there  would  have  been  no  trouble  in  that  State-house.  But  that 
board  corrupts,  perverts,  suppresses  the  just  returns  from  the  elec- 
tion, and  when  the  conservatives  in  spite  of  the  desperate  action 
of  the  board  succeed  in  securing  the  organization  of  the  house, 
the  military  power  of  the  General  Government  is  invoked  to  con- 
summate the  usurpation  the  board  had  begun.  Where  was  the 
riot  ?  With  whom,  between  whom,  and  by  whom  was  it  made  ?  In  the 
legislative  hall  there  were  not  one  hundred  conservatives — citizens, 
members  of  the  Legislature  and  its  officials — men  of  all  ages.  Was  it 
their  purpose  to  commit  a  riot  ?  No.  They  had  but  an  hour  before 
called  on  the  millitary  to  restore  order  among  their  opponents  and 
their  followers.  How  was  that  riot  to  be  suppressed?  Order  had  been 
once  restored  upon  the  simple  appearance  of  General  De  Trobriand.  I 
apprehend  that. the  learned  jurists  of  the  country  to  whom  the  Sena- 
tor from  New  York  referred  so  eloquently  will  think  it  rather  a  novel 
method  of  quelling  a  riot  by  ejecting  with  bayonets  five  members  of 
a  State  Legislature  from  the  seats  they  were  quietly  holding.  The 
idea  of  a  riot  by  the  conservatives  in  that  hall  and  on  that  day  is 
simply  impossible.  The  State-house  was  surrounded  by  eighteen 
hundred  United  States  soldiers;  charged  cannon  commanded  the 
streets  of  the  city,  and  the  guns  of  armed  vessels  of  war  in  the  river 
were  trained  upon  all  the  approaches  to  the  capitol.  The  State-house 
was  encircled  with  lines  of  bayonets.  A  riot  in  that  hall  was  impossi- 
ble. The  purpose  was  to  eject  the  five  members,  to  turn  the  Legislature 
over  to  the  republicans  and  to  complete  the  usurpation  commenced 
by  the  returning  board.  Is  there  a  rational  man  on  the  face  of  the 
earth  who  can  doubt  that  this  was  the  purpose,  who  does  not  know 
that  a  simple  word  from  the  officer  in  command  to  "  keep  the  peace  " 
would  have  maintained  order;  and  are  any  so  blind  as  to  imagine 
that  that  feeble  band  of  conservatives  so  environed  could  contemplate 
violence?  Sir,  I  will  pursue  this  line  of  argument  no  further.  The 
riot  has  been  suppressed  now  for  six  weeks  but  the  five  expelled  mem- 
bers are  still  excluded  from  the  Legislature. 

But  the  honorable  Senator  from  Ohio  says  that  "  to  call  this  one 
of  those  great  historic  outrages  where  the  rights  of  a  whole  peo- 
ple are  trampled  upon  is  simply  making  a  mountain  out  of  a  mole- 
hill." I  have  great  respect  for  the  candor  of  that  Senator,  but  he 
must  pardon  the  same  candor  in  me  when  I  say  that  1  fear  he  looks 
upon  this  event  in  Louisiana  in  a  very  different  light  from  that  in 
which  he  would  view  it  in  Ohio  or  New  York.  I  fear  Senators  do 
not  yet  fully  realize  that  the  Southern  States  are  States  of  this  Union, 
with  all  the  duties  and  all  the  rights  of  their  northern  sisters.     I  wish 


52 

I  could  see  armed  intervention  in  Louisiana  as  the  Senator  sees,  and 
that  his  was  the  true  view.  I  pray  that  it  may  not  prove  one  of 
those  great  eclipses  which  have  rarely  occurred  in  history  to  over- 
shadow free  government.  In  my  opinion  that  will  depend  upon  the 
courage  of  Congress  and  the  patriotism  of  the  American  people. 
I  think  it  will  not  he  unprofitable  to  the  Senator  and  to  the 
people  to  review  those  remarkable  examples  in  history  which  have 
preceded  the  tragedy  in  Louisiana.  I  will  read  the  account  given 
by  Hallam  of  the  usurpation  of  Charles  I,  when  he  invaded  the 
British  House  of  Commons  : 

The  following  account  of  the  king'i  coming  to  the  house  on  this  occasion  is 
copied  from  the  pencil  notes  of  Sir  II.  Verney.  It  has  been  already  printed  by  Mr. 
Hatsell,  but  with  no  great  correctness.  What  Sir  R.  Verney  says  of  the  transac- 
tions of  January  3  is  much  the  same  as  we  read  in  the  journals.    He  thus  proceeds  : 

"  Tuesday,  January  4,  1641. 

"The  Jive  gentlemen  which  were  to  be  accused  came  into  the  house,  and  there 
was  information  that  they  should  be  taken  away  by  force.  Upon  this  the  house 
sent  to  the  lord  mayor,  aldermen,  and  common  council  to  let  them  know  how  their 
privileges  were  likely  to  be  broken  and  the  city  put  into  danger,  and  advised  them 
to  look  to  their  security. 

"Likewise  some  members  were  sent  to  the  inns  of  court,  to  let  them  know  how 
they  heard  they  were  tampered  withal  to  assist  the  king  against  them,  and  there* 
fore  they  desired  them  not  to  come  to  Westminster. 

"Then  the  house  adjourned  to  one  of  the  clock." 

As  soon  as  the  house  met  again,  it  was  moved,  considering  there  was  an  intention 
to  take  these  five  members  away  by  force,  to  avoid  all  tumult  let  them  be  com- 
manded to  absent  themselves ;  upon  this  the  house  gave  them  leave  to  absent  them- 
selves, but  entered  no  order  for  it.    And  the  five  gentlemen  went  out  of  the  house. 

A  little  after  the  king  came  with  all  his  guard,  and  all  his  pensioners,  and  two  or 
three  hundred  soldiers  and  gentlemen.  The  king  commanded  the  soldiers  to  stay 
in  the  hall,  and  sent  us  word  he  was  at  the  door.  The  speaker  was  commanded  to 
sit  still  with  the  mace  lying  before  him,  and  then  the  king  came  to  the  door,  and 
took  the  palsgrave  in  with  him.  and  commanded  all  that  canie  with  him  upon  their 
lives  not  to  come  in.  So  the  doors  were  kept  open,  and  the  Earl  of  Roxburgh  stood 
within  the  door,  leaning  upon  it.  Then  the  king  came  upward  toward  the  chair 
with  his  hat  off,  and  the  speaker  stepped  out  to  meet  him ;  then  the  king  stepped 
up  to  his  place  and  stood  upon  the  step,  but  sat  not  down  in  the.  chair. 

And  after  he  had  looked  a  great  while  he  told  us  he  would  not  break  our  privi- 
leges, but  treason  had  no  privilege ;  he  came  for  those  five  gentlemen,.for  he  ex- 
pected obedience  yesterday,  and  not  an  answer.  Then  he  called  Mr.  Pym  and  Mr. 
Hollis  by  name,  but  no  answer  was  made.  Then  he  asked  the  speaker  if  they  were 
here  or  where  they  were  ?  Upon  this  the  speaker  fell  on  his  knees  and  desired 
his  excuse,  for  he  was  a  servaut  to  the  house,  and  had  neither  eyes  nor  tongue  to 
see  or  say  anything  but  what  they  commanded  him ;  then  the  king  told  him  he 
thought  his  own  eyes  were  as  good  as  his,  and  then  said  his  birds  had  flown,  but 
he  did  expect  thehouse  should  send  them  to  him  ;  and  if  they  did  not,  he  would 
seek  them  himself,  for  their  treason  was  foul,  and  such  a  one  as  they  would  all 
thank  him  to  discover  ;  then  he  assured  us  they  should  have  a  fair  trial ;  and  so 
went  out,  pulling  off  his  hat  till  he  came  to  the  door.  Upon  this  the  house  did  in 
stantly  resolve  to  adjourn  till  to-morrow  at  one  of  the  clock,  and  in  the  interim  they 
might  consider  what  to  do. — Hallam' s  Constitutional  History  of  England,  volume 
2,  pages  125,  126. 

Does  the  Senator  discover  no  coincidence  with  the  recent  event  in 
New  Orleans?  While  the  principal  incidents  of  the  two  events  are 
concurrent,  does  the  Senator  discover  no  painful  similitude  in  the 
exact  days  of  the  month  and  the  week  and  the  ominous  number  of 
the  five  expelled  members  ;  the  same  month,  January  ;  the  same  day 
of  the  month,  the  4th;  the  same  day  of  the  week,  Tuesday;  the 
same  number  expelled,  five.  Slight  as  these  circumstances  are,  I  trust 
they  may  make  sufficient  impression  on  our  minds  to  warn  us  against 
the  fatal  consequences  that  followed  that  unhappy  mistake  of  the 
best  of  the  Stuarts.    Hallam  says  : 

But  the  single  false  step  which  rendered  his  affairs  irretrievable  by  anything 
short  of  civil  war.  and  placed  all  reconciliation  at  an  insuperable  distance,  was  his 
attempt  to  seize  the  five  members  within  the  walls  of  the  house  j  an  evident  viola- 


53 

tion,  not  of  common  privilege,  but  of  all  security  for  the  independent  existence  of 
Parliament  in  the  mode  of  its  execution,  and  leading  to  a  very  natural  though  per- 
haps mistaken  surmise  that  the  charge  itself  of  high  treason  made  against  these 
distinguished  leaders,  without  communicating  any  of  its  grounds,  had  no  other 
foundation  than  their  parliamentary  conduct. — Hallam's  Constitutional  History  of 
England,  volume  2,  pages  125,  126. 

I  will  now"  read  from  Hume's  history  Ms  graphic  account  of  the 
dissolution  of  that  Parliament,  the  most  distinguished  of  all  others 
for  its  vicissitudes  of  glory  and  shame,  hy  the  usurper  Cromwell : 

Cromwell,  in  a  rage,  immediately  hastened  to  the  house  and  carried  a  body  of 
three  hundred  soldiers  along  with  him.  Some  of  them  he  placed  at  the  door,  some 
in  the  lobby,  some  on  the  stairs.  He  first  addressed  himself  to  his  friend  St. 
John,  and  told  him  that  he  had  come  with  a  purpose  of  doing  what  grieved  him  to 
the  very  soul,  and  what  he  had  earnestly  with  tears  besought  the  Lord  not  to  im- 
pose upon  him,  but  there  was  a  necessity,  in  order  to  the  glory  of  G-od  and  good  of 
the  nation.  He  sat  down  for  some  time  and  heard  the  debate.  He  beckoned  Har- 
rison, and  told  him  that  he  now  judged  the  Parliament  rife  for  a  dissolution. 
"Sir,"  said  Harrison,  "the  work  is  very  great  and  dangerous.  I  desire  you  seri- 
ously to  consider  before  you  engage  in  it."  "  You  say  well,"  replied  the  general ; 
and  thereupon  sat  still  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  When  the  question  was  ready 
to  be  put  he  said  again  to  Harrison,  "  This  is  the  time;  I  must  do  it."  And  sud- 
denly starting  up,  he  loaded  the  Parliament  with  the  vilest  reproaches  for  their 
tyranny,  ambition,  oppression,  and  robbery  of  the  public.  Then  stamping  with 
his  foot,  which  was  a  signal  for  the  soldiers  to  enter,  "  For  shame,"  said  he  to  the 
Parliament;  "get  you  gone;  give  place  to  honest  men;  to  those  who  will  more 
faithfully  discharge  their  trust.  You  are  no  longer  a  Parliament.  I  tell  you  you 
are  no  longer  a  Parliament.  The  Lord  has  done  with  you ;  he  has  chosen  other  in- 
struments for  carrying  on  his  work."  Sir  Harry  Vane  exclaiming  against  this 
proceeding,  he  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  "  O  !  Sir  Harry  Vane,  Sir  Harry  Vane  !  The 
Lord  deliver  me  from  Sir  Harry  Vane  ! " 

Having  commanded  the  soldiers  to  clear  the  hall,  he  himself  went  out  last,  and 
ordering  the  doors  to  be  locked,  departed  to  his  lodgings  in  Whitehall. — Hume's 
History  of  England,  volume  7,  pages  192,  193. 

And  now,  coming  down  to  a  period  nearer  our  own  times,  I  will 
draw  the  attention  of  the  Senate  and  the  country  to  another  scene  of 
military  interference  with  a  representative  assembly  of  the  people. 
I  read  from  Thier's  French  Revolution : 

At  this  moment  Bonaparte  heard  oiitside  the  scene  that  was  passing  in  the  As- 
sembly. "He  was  alarmed  for  his  brother,  and  sent  ten  grenadiers  to  bring  him  out 
of  the  hall.  The  grenadiers  entered,  found  Lucien  encompassed  by  a  group,  laid 
hold  of  him  by  the  arm,  saying  that  it  was  by  his  brother's  orders,  and  hurried  him 
away.  The  moment  had  arrived  for  taking  a  decisive  step.  If  there  was  any 
wavering  all  would  be  lost.  Rhetorical  means  for  working  upon  the  Assembly 
having  become  impracticable,  no  alternative  was  left  but  force.  It  was  requisite 
to  hazard  one  of  those  daring  acts  before  which  usurpers  always  hesitate.  Caesar 
hesitated  before  he  passed  the  Rubicon,  Cromwell  before  he  turned  out  the  Parlia- 
ment. Bonaparte  determined  to  march  his  grenadiers  against  the  Assembly.  He 
mounted  his  horse,  with  Lucien,  and  rode  along  the  front  of  the  troops.  Lucien 
harangued  them.  "The  Council  of  the  Five  Hundred  is  dissolved,"  said  he;  "it  is 
I  that  tell  you  so.  Assassins  have  taken  possession  of  the  hall  of  meeting  and 
have  done  violence  to  the  majority;  I  summon  you  to  march  and  to  clear  it  of 
them."  Lucien  afterward  swore  that  himself  and  his  brother  would  be  the  faith- 
ful defenders  of  liberty.  Murat  and  Leclerc  then  took  a  battalion  of  grenadiers 
and  conducted  it  to  the  door  of  the  live  Hundred.  They  advanced  to  the  entrance 
of  the  hall.  At  the  sight  of  the  bayonets  the  deputies  set  up  tremendous  shouts, 
as  they  had  done  at  the  appearance  of  Bonaparte.  But  these  shouts  were  drowned 
by  the /rolling  of  the  drums.  "Grenadiers,  forward!"  cried  the  officers.  The 
grenadiers  entered  the  hall  and  dispersed  the  deputies,  who  fled,  some  by  the  pas- 
sages, others  by  the  windows.  In  a  moment  the  hall  was  cleared  and  Bonaparte 
was  left  master  of  this  deplorable  field  of  battle. — Thiers's  French  Bevolutio-n,  vol- 
ume 4,  page  428. 

There,  Mr.  President,  are  brought  before  us  in  the  faithful  light  of 
history  the  three  most  remarkable  instances  of  military  usurpation 
in  the  invasion  of  the  rights  and  powers  and  the  seizure  of  the  per- 
sons of  a  legislature.     Is  it  necessary  to  remind  you  that  each  of  these 


54 

scenes  was  followed  by  dark  years  of  blood  and  sorrows,  of  con- 
vulsions that  overturned  the  foundatiens  of  government,  of  despot- 
isms that  overshadowed  the  liberties  of  nations  ?  They  with  the  his- 
tory of  their  calamities  have  been  handed  down  to  us  as  warning  ex- 
amples, and  they  stand  as  beacon-lights  to  direct  us  from  their  dan- 
gers. I  trust  that  the  American  people  will  study  these  eminent 
lessons,  and,  contemplating  the  mighty  disasters  of  which  they  were 
the  sign  or  the  origin,  will  command  their  representatives  to  rebuke 
their  repetition  and  to  anticipate  the  recurrence  of  their  influence  in 
this  Eepublic. 

Nor,  will  the  defenders  and  apologists  of  the  military  usurpation 
in  Louisiana  derive  much  comfort  or  support  from  the  examples  to 
which  they  have  referred  in  our  own  country.  While  altogether 
different  in  most  important  circumstances,  and  certainly  in  their 
constitutional  character  and  relations  not  parallel  to  the  event  in 
Louisiana;  yet,  in  the  unhappy  occurrences  that  succeeded  them 
neither  the  dispersion  of  the  territorial  Legislature  at  Topeka  nor 
the  suppression  of  the  State  Legislature  at  Annapolis  will  be  pleas- 
ant or  safe  authorities  for  our  guidance.  They  too  are  conspicuous 
examples  against  the  evils  that  certainly  flow  from  military  interfer- 
ence with  civil  authority  even  when  exercised  with  the  greatest 
caution  and  under  the  sternest  necessity. 

No,  sir ;  military  interventions  with  legislative  assemblies  have  al- 
ways been  fruitful  fountains  of  blood. 

By  the  side  of  these  examples  in  what  light  will  the  spectacle  of 
the  4th  of  January  at  New  Orleans  appear?  In  what  colors  will 
some  future  Hume  or  Hallam  draw  the  picture  of  that  State-house 
surrounded  with  its  cordon  of  polished  steel ;  those  brave  batteries 
of  artillery  posted  in  the  streets  of  the  capital  of  Louisiana;  those 
dark  armaments  frowning  from  the  great  Mississippi;  those  squad- 
rons of  armed  troops  stationed  with  their  unfurled  standards  up  and 
down  the  mournful  city;  that  legislative  hall,  as  the  officer  of  the 
Army,  with  his  buckled  sword,  and  his  file  of  soldiers,  enter  and  seize 
the  devoted  five,  and  with  fixed  bayonets  bear  them  from  the  capi- 
tol?  Will  it  be  recorded  along  with  the  event  which  occurred  near 
that  city  sixty  years  ago  as  one  of  the  great  victories  of  liberty,  or 
will  it  descend  to  other  times  as  one  of  the  dark  and  melancholy 
examples  that  begin  a  nation's  downfall  1 

The  history  of  Louisiana  for  the  lastf  few  years  presents  an  in- 
structive but  melancholy  picture.  We  behold  that  once  proud  State 
occupying  the  most  eligible  position  on  the  continent  for  the  enjoy- 
ment of  every  element  of  material  prosperity,  and  we  should  natu- 
rally expect  to  find  in  her  rapidly  reviving  fortunes  the  promise  of  a 
greater  future  for  the  South.  Her  soil  is  as  fruitful  as  a  garden. 
Her  climate,  tempered  between  the  glow  of  the  tropics  and  the 
milder  winds  from  the  Gulf,  is  genial  and  delightful.  Her  productions 
are  more  abundant  than  those  of  the  Nile.  Her  fruits  are  more  deli- 
cious than  those  of  Italy.  Her  flowers  as  fragrant  and  as  beautiful 
as  imagination  can  paint.  The  great  Mississippi,  once  laden  with 
the  richest  commerce  of  the  world,  flows  through  her  borders.  The 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  like  another  Mediterranean,  opens  its  broad  bosom 
to  her  trade.  Nature  has  blessed  her  with  its  most  munificent  gifts, 
and  art  has  contributed  to  cultivate  them  to  usefulness  and  beauty. 

The  people  of  Louisiana  are  a  bright,  brave,  patriotic  race,  "  un- 
surpassed among  the  nations  of  the  earth  in  courage,  spirit,  generos- 
ity, and  hospitality,  and  have  that  love  and  habit  of  truth  which 
becomes  brave  men."    They  combine  the  refinement,  the  courtesy,  the 


55 

grace  of  the  knightly  Nornian  with  the  sterner  and  sturdier  virtues 
of  sterling  English  character  ;  for  in  their  veins  are  doubly  united 
both  streams  of  these  noble  bloods.  Such  is  the  physical  State  of 
Louisiana,  and  such  is  the  character  of  the  people  who  once  possessed, 
but,  in  the  language  of  the  House  committee,  "do  not  now  hold,  the 
State  government."  From  the  union  of  such  a  country  and  such  a 
people  what  of  happiness  and  honor  might  we  not  naturally  ex- 
pect? And  yet,  Senators,  you  behold  in  Louisiana  a  scene  of  calam- 
ity which  defies  description.  In  all  Europe,  Asia,  and  America  you 
will  see  no  country,  no  people  so  cursed  and  so  forlorn.  For 
two  hundred  years  in  the  receded  past  her  history  is  without  a  paral- 
lel in  mingled  infamy  and  sorrow.  There  was  genius  and  romantic 
devotion  on  the  darkest  page  of  the  French  revolution.  Over  the 
corruption  and  ruin  in  Louisiana  there  falls  not  a  gleam  of  truth  or 
intelligence.  We  travel  through  deserted  and  wasted  districts  only 
to  contemplate  the  evidence  of  decay  and  to  witness  the  symptoms 
of  approaching  dissolution.  The  sight  of  a  once  great,  generous, 
gifted  people  sinking  suddenly  into  irretrievable  degeneracy  and 
degradation,  with  no  hope  of  deliverance,  has  rarely,  if  ever,  occurred 
in  the  history  of  nations. 

In  that  magnificent  art  gallery  which  one  of  the  noblest  benefacr 
tors  and  philanthropists  of  the  age  has  presented  to  the  people  of 
this  city  to  delight  their  tastes  and  elevate  their  sentiments 
there  is  a  painting  that  represents  the  "  Famine  in  Egypt."  When- 
ever I  enter  that  beautiful  hall  and  behold  on  the  sad  canvas  the 
shrunken  forms  and  wasted  faces  and  appealing  eyes  of  that  stricken 
people  as  they  gaze  on  the  tender  and  pitiful  figures  of  their  starving 
children  and  press  the  wilting  bodies  to  their  unnourishing  breasts, 
my  heart  turns  to  Louisiana,  and  by  the  agony  and  ruin  of  that  once 
noble  State  and  the  dark  river  that  lays  before  her  the  painted  death 
and  despair  on  the  Nile  seems  but  a  miniature.  Sir,  physical  suffering 
is  much ;  want,  hunger,  disease,  pain,  all  try  the  mind  and  body ;  but 
what  are  they  when  a  proud,  refined, intelligent,  Christian  people  be- 
hold the  government,  the  liberty,  the  virtue  their  fathers  left  them, 
and  which  they  in  their  souls  cherish,  dying  out  and  passing  away, 
never  to  return  to  them  or  their  children— when  they  behold  the 
shadows  of  Mexico,  of  Jamaica,  of  Central  America,  worse  than  the 
shadows  of  death,  gradually  but  surely  settling  over  their  country  ? 

Sir,  when  I  have  read  of  Palmyra  and  Balbec  and  Memphis  and 
Thebes  and  the  great  empires  and  cities  of  remote  ages,  and  have  been 
told  that  no  vestige  of  their  existence  remains  and  that  the  traveler 
looks  in  vain  for  the  sites  where  they  stood,  I  have  often  doubted  their 
reality,  for  I  could  not  understand  how  so  many  monuments  of  art  and 
time  could  entirely  perish ;  but  in  the  rapid  decline  and  transforma- 
tion of  Louisiana  I  see  the  truth  of  history  vindicated.  There  can  be 
a  government  so  bad  to  which  nothing  of  [ruin  is  impossible,  as  there 
can  be  a  government  so  good  to  which  nothing  of  beneficence  is  im- 
possible. But  much  as  I  deplore  this  gloomy  picture,  it  is  not  entirely 
without  some  compensation.  Had  a  State  government  established  by 
the  corruption  of  the  Federal  judiciary  and  sustained  by  the  military 
power  of  the  General  Government  been  even  tolerable,  had  it  not 
been  utterly  and  absolutely  self -destructive,  the  American  people 
might  not  have  been  awakened  to  its  enormity,  and  the  evil  might 
have  grown  until  it  was  too  large  and  too  deep  to  conquer  and  to  eradi- 
cate. The  melancholy  and  lamentable  example  is  now  before  us  in 
all  its  disastrous  consequences,  and  I  believe  the  country  will  admin- 
ister a  remedy.  At  least  the  usurped  State  government  cannot 
stand.    It  is  dying  from  its  own  corruption  so  fast  that  bayonets 


56 

cannot  support  and  give  it  life.  Springing  from  no  popular  will,  sur- 
rounded by  no  popular  affections,  restrained  by  no  moral  sense,  di- 
rected by  no  enlightened  patriotism,  it  is  obliged  to  fall  crashed  by 
the  weight  of  its  own  abuses,  and  universal  contempt  aud  detesta- 
tion await  its  downfall. 

Let  us  be  more  than  thankful  that  usurpation  cannot  take  root 
in  the  soil,  cannot  flourish  in  the  pure  air  of  the  Republic.  Beneath 
the  withering  shadow  of  its  bayonets  the  prosperity  and  freedom 
of  half  a  million  people  have  sickened  and  fallen  to  the  earth,  and 
its  depressing  influences  have  extended  far  beyond  the  limits  of  a 
State  and  are  felt  in  every  limb  and  artery  of  the  Eepublic.  The 
commerce  of  a  nation  lifts  its  hands  against  the  wrong ;  the  manu- 
factures of  a  country  protest  against  the  impolicy ;  all  the  trade  of  the 
States  condemns  the  folly ;  all  the  industries  of  the  Republic  resist  the 
injustice;  all  the  humanities  of  the  people  rebuke  the  oppressions  that 
have  depressed,  paralyzed,  aud  exhausted  their  best  resources  and  cast 
a  frightful  cloud  upon  their  hopes.  Every  interest  in  the  Union  sym- 
pathizes with  the  misfortunes  of  Louisiana.  The  blow  that  struck 
her  down  has  staggered  the  energies  of  the  North  and  the  East.  Her 
blight  and  the  adversities  of  her  southern  sisters  have  extinguished 
the  fires  in  your  furnaces,  closed  the  doors  of  your  mercantile  palaces, 
left  your  ships  to  decay  in  the  docks,  stopped  the  music  of  your  looms, 
and  have  taken  their  daily  bread  from  the  mouths  of  the  noble  sons 
of  labor  who  support  your  wealth,  prosperity,  and  glory. 

When  the  Senator  from  Delaware  [Mr.  Bayard]  declared  to  us  a 
year  since  in  clear  words  that  "justice  to  the  South  was  self -protec- 
tion to  the  North,"  he  uttered  a  great  truth,  one  full  of  wisdom  and 
full  of  patriotism.  Time  has  verified  his  statesmanship.  Justice  is 
the  safety  of  the  nation.  It  is  the  only  law  of  perpetual  life,  the 
only  principle  of  permanent  possession,  and  whenever  or  wherever  it 
is  violated,  the  sooner  and  the  more  palpable  its  retributions  come 
the  better  will  it  be  for  the  country.  That  relation  which  makes  the 
prosperity  of  each  section  depend  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  other 
sections  of  the  Union  is  the  guarantee  of  its  justice  and  the  indissolu- 
ble bond  of  its  integrity ;  and  every  American  patriot  must  rejoice 
■when  he  beholds  a  conspicuous  illustration  of  the  sublime  principle. 
It  is  the  union  of  duty,  of  interest,  of  self-preservation  that  binds 
together  more  firmly  than  laws,  the  union  of  the  States,  and  the  peo- 
ple. The  destruction  of  material  prosperity  in  the  South  has  been 
followed,  as  the  night  follows  the  day,  by  the  derangement,  depres- 
sion, and  distress  of  all  interests  at  the  North ;  and  the  injury  to  con- 
stitutional liberty  committed  on  the  State  of  Louisiana  may  not  as 
promptly  but  will  as  surely  extend  its  dangerous  influences  over  the 
free  institutions  of  the  country.  An  organ,  a  limb,  one  of  the  senses 
of  the  human  frame,  can  no  more  be  cut  off  or  maimed  without  im- 
pairing the  vital  strength  of  the  whole  system  than  can  a  section  or 
State  of  this  Union  be  mutilated,  stricken  down,  or  dishonored  with- 
out weakening,  corrupting,  degrading  the  power  and  character  of 
the  whole  Republic  ?  Sir,  let  this  Union,  with  its  harmonies  unbroken 
by  injustice,  mad  hate,  and  jarring  discords,  be  a  great  and  continu- 
ing circle  of  beneficence,  diffusing  its  influence  as  the  light  comes  from 
the  firmament  over  our  heads,  and  let  its  protection,  its  benefits,  and 
honors  descend  equally  upon  all  parts  of  the  country  as  the  dews 
from  heaven,  and  it  will  stand  as  bright  and  as  grand  as  the  stars. 

Let  it  not  be  thought  that  I  have  exaggerated  the  wrongs  and  mis- 
fortunes of  the  people  of  Louisiana.  I  refer  to  these  extracts  from 
the  report  of  the  House  committee,  and  of  Colonel  Morrow,  of  the 
United  States  Armv  : 


57 

The  general  condition  of  affairs  in  the  State  of  Louisiana  seems  to  be  as  follows : 
The  conviction  has  been  general  among  the  whites  since  1872  that  the  Kellogg 
government  was  a  usurpation.  This  conviction  among  them  has  been  strength- 
ened by  the  acts  of  the  Kellogg  legislature,  abolishing  existing  courts  and  judges 
and  substituting  others  presided  over  by  judges  appointed  by  Kellogg,  having  ex- 
traordinary and  exclusive  jurisdiction  over  political  questions  ;  by  changes  in  the 
laws,  centralizing  in  the  governor  every  form  of  political  control,  including  the 
supervision  of  the  elections ;  by  continuing  the  returning  board,  with  absolute 
power  over  the  returns  of  elections ;  by  the  extraordinary  provisions  enacted  for 
the  trial  of  titles  and  claims  to  office  ;  by  the  conversion  of  the  police  force,  main- 
tained at  the  expense  of  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  into  an  armed  brigade  of  State 
militia  subject  to  the  command  of  the  governor ;  by  the  creation  in  some  places  of 
monopolies  in  markets,  gas-making,  water- works,  and  ferries,  cleaning  vaults  and 
removing  filth,  and  doing  work  as  wharfingers  j  by  the  aholition  of  courts  with 
elective  judges,  and  the  substitution  of  other  courts  with  judges  appointed  by  Kel- 
logg in  evasion  of  the  constitution  of  the  State ;  by  enactments  punishing  crimi- 
nally all  persons  who  attempted  to  fill  official  positions  unless  returned  by  the 
returning  board ;  by  unlimited  appropriations  for  the  payment  of  militia  expenses 
and  for  the  payment  of  legislative  warrants,  vouchers,  and  checks,  issued  during 
the  years  1870  and  1872;  bylaws  declaring  that  no  persons  in  arrears  for  taxes 
after  default  published  shall  bring  any  suit  in  any  court  of  the  State  or  be  allowed 
to  be  a  witness  in  his  own  behalf — measures  which,  when  coupled  with  the  ex- 
traordinary burdens  of  taxation,  have  served  to  vest,  in  the  language  of  Governor 
Kellogg's  counsel,  "  a  degree  of  power  in  the  governor  of  a  State  scarcely  exercised 
by  any  sovereign  in  the  world." 

With  this  conviction  is  a  general  want  of  confidence  in  the  integrity  of  the  exist- 
ing State  and  local  officials  ;  a  want  of  confidence  equally  in  their  purposes,  and  in 
their  personnel ;  which  is  accompanied  by  the  paralyzation  of  business  and  destruc- 
tion of  values.  The  most  hopeful  witness  produced  by  the  Kellogg  party,  while  he 
declared  that  business  was  in  a  sounder  condition  than  ever  before,  because  there 
was  less  credit,  has  since  declared  that  "there was  no  prosperity."  The  securities 
of  the  State  have  fallen  in  two  years  from  70  or  80  to  25 ;  of  the  city  of  New  Orleans 
from  80  or  90  to  30  or  40,  while  the  fall  in  bank  shares,  railway  shares,  city  and 
other  corporate  companies,  have  in  a  degree  corresponded.  Throughout  the  rural 
districts  of  the  State  the  negroes,  reared  in  habits  of  reliance  upon  their  masters 
for  support,  and  in  a  community  in  which  the  members  are  always  ready  to  divide 
the  necessaries  of  life  with  each  other,  not  regarding  such  action  as  very  evil,  and 
having  immunity  from  punishment  from  the  nature  of  the  local  officials,  had  come 
to  filching  and  stealing  fruit,  vegetables,  and  poultry  so  generally — as  Bishop  Wil- 
marth  stated  without  contradiction  from  any  source — that  the  raising  of  these 
articles  had  to  be  entirely  abandoned,  to  the  great  distress  of  the  white  people, 
while  within  the  parishes,  as  well  as  in  New  Orleans,  the  taxation  had  been  carried 
almost  literalls'  to  the  extent  of  confiscation.  In  New  Orleans  the  assessors  are 
paid  a  commission  for  the  amount  assessed,  and  houses  and  stores  are  to  be  had 
there  for  the  taxes.  In  Natchitoches  the  taxation  reached  about  8  per  cent,  of  the 
assessed  value  on  the  property.  In  many  parishes  all  the  white  republicans  and 
all  the  office-holders  belong  to  a  single  family.  There  are  five  of  the  G-reens  in 
office  in  Lincoln  ;  there  are  seven  of  the  Boults  in  office  in  Natchitoches.  As  the 
people  saw  taxation  increase  and  prosperity  diminish,  as  they  grew  poor  while 
officials  grew  rich,  they  became  naturally  sore.  That  they  love  their  rulers  cannot 
be  pretended. — Report  of  the  select  committee  composed  of  Messrs.  Foster,  Phelps,  and 
Potter. 

I  now  come  to  the  general  condition  of  affairs  in  the  parishes  on  Red  River,  and, 
without  the  slightest  exaggeration,  I  may  say  it  is  bad.  Respect  and  regard  for 
the  General  Government  are  expressed  by  ail  classes  of  people,  and  so  is  the  de- 
termination not  to  be,  under  any  circumstances,  brought  into  collision  with  the 
Federal  troops  ;  but  there  is  a  universal  expression  of  contempt  for  the  State  gov- 
ernment, and,  so  far  as  language  could  express  it,  there  is  open  defiance  of  its  au- 
thority. The  governor  is  everywhere,  and  by  almost  every  white  man,  denounced 
a  "  usurper,"  and  the  determination  is  openly  expressed  by  nearly  every  white  man 
not  to  submit  to  his  usurpation  longer  than  submission  is.  compelled  by  the  pres- 
ence and  force  of  Federal  soldiers. 

Dissatisfaction  and  discontent  are  plainly  visible  in  all  the  acts  and  conversation 
of  the  people,  and  the  result  is  manifest  in  almost  every  department  of  business. 
Uncultivated  fields,  unrepaired  fences,  roofless  and  dilapidated  dwellings,  and 
abandoned  houses  meet  the  eye  at  every  step,  and  the  whole  aspect  of  the  country 
has  a  look  of  poverty  and  neglect.  The  schools  in  many  parishes  are  closed  for 
want  of  money  to  pay  the  teachers,  and  I  was  told  again  and  again  that  the  school 
funds  had  been  stolen  by  the  State  officials.  In  one  parish  a  criminal  court  had 
not  been  held  in  nearly  two  years,  and  in  other  parishes  no  court,  criminal  or  civil, 
had  been  held  for  a  long  time.  In  a  community  where  there  are  no  courts  crime 
finds  a  genial  soil,  and  the  natural  result  is  that  the  law  has  fallen  iuto  disregard 


58 

and  disrepute.     Judges  were  openly  charged  -with  corruption,  and  money,  and  not 
justice,  is  charged  with  turning  the, judicial  scales. 

The  people  reported,  and  seem  to  believe,  that  the  machinery  of  the  Federal 
courts  had  been  used  to  oppress  them  for  political  ends,  and  that  the  Federal  troops 
had  been  used  for  political  purposes.  How  far  this  has  been  the  case  I  have  no 
means  of  knowing,  but  I  do  believe  that  deputy  United  States  marshals  have  used 
United  States  soldiers  in  cases  where  there  was  no  necessity  for  them,  and,  from  my 
investigations,  in  the  parishes  of  Ouachita  and  Lincoln,  I  am  quite  certain  thai 
these  civil  officers  discharged  their  duties  in  an  unnecessarily  harsh,  if  not  cruel, 
manner.  It  was  represented  to  me  that  the  marshals  are  in  the  habit  of  prowling 
through  the  country  in  the  night-time,  accompanied  by  a  posse  of  soldiers,  to  make 
arrests  of  citizens  who'could  oe  arrested  by  the  marshal  unaided,  and,  under  any 
circumstances,  should  be  arrested  in  the  open  daylight. 

These  night  arrests  -seemed  to  have  a  peculiar  terror  for  the  people,  and  my  at- 
tention was  repeatedly  called  to  them.  Another  subject  of  complaint  was  the  fact 
that  citizens  are  arrested  without  the  shadow  of  a  cause,  and  after  long  and  vexa- 
tious delay  and  great  expense,  are  set  at  liberty  without  affording  them"  even  a  pre- 
liminary hearing. — Letter  of  Henry  A.  Morrow,  lieutenant-colonel  Thirteenth  Infantry, 
United  States  Army. 

Headquarters  of  the  Army, 
Saint  Louis,  Missouri,  January  4,  1875. 

This  paper  is  most  respectfully  forwarded  to  the  Secretary.of  War  with  a  request 
that  he  submit  it  for  the  personal  perusal  of  the  President."  I  know  of  no  officer  of 
Colonel  Morrow's  rank  who  is  better  qualified  to  speak  and  write  of  matters  like 
this,  and  his  opinions  are  entitled  to  great  consideration.  I  profess  to  have  some 
knowledge  of  the  people  of  that  section,  both  white  and  black,  from  a  long  residence 
among  them  before  the  war  and  several  visits  since,  but  I  shall  not  intrude  my 
opinion  in  the  confusion  in  which  the  subject  is  now  enveloped. 

W.  T.  SHERMAN, 
»  General. 

How,  Mr.  President,  let  me  ask  you,  is  this  Union  to  be  maintained 
and  preserved?  In  the  Southern  States  there  are  eight  millions  of 
white  people  who  entertain  political  sentiments  of  great  unanimity. 
I  know  you  can  govern  this  people  by  force  for  a  time.  You  have 
the  physical  power  to  do  it ;  you  have  already  done  it.  Russia  gov- 
erns the  whole  of  her  immense  territory  by  this  system.  It  is  a  sim- 
ple form  of  government;  unlimited  and  irresponsible  power  on  one 
side  and  passive  obedience  and  blind  submission  on  the  other — the 
despot  and  the  serf.  Senators,  I  know  you  do  not  intend  to  erect  here 
on  the  ashes  of  American  liberty  an  iron  throne  and  place  on  it  an 
emperor  with  the  imperial  purple  of  the  Csesars  or  the  ice-bound  dia- 
dem of  the  Russias.  From  the  very  thought  you  shrink  back  in  hor- 
ror, with  indignant  incredulity.  You  love  the  institutions  of  our 
fathers  and  you  love  the  Union  and  can  proudly  point  to  the  sacri- 
fices yon  have  made  to  hold  and  bind  it  together.  But  let  me  ask 
you,  if  you  think  it  possible  to  govern  one-half  of  this  country  by 
despotic  force  and  administer  free  government  for  the  people  of  the 
other  half  ?  Can  one-half  of  this  country  be  free  and  the  other  half 
enslaved  ?  Can  fifteen  States  of  this  Union  be  stricken  down ;  their 
liberties  conquered;  their  laws  overthrown;  their  free  government 
subverted  ;  their  spirits,  their  hopes,  their  aspirations  crushed  to  the 
earth;  their  industries  paralyzed,  and  their  prosperity  prostrated,  and 
the  other  twenty-two  States  under  the  same  General  Government  en- 
joy their  free  and  popular  institutions,  move  in  their  regular  orbits 
of  State  powers  and  duties,  advance  in  material  wealth  and  physi- 
cal development,  and  maintain  all  their  domestic  laws  and  rights 
without  disorder,  confusion,  and  ultimate  ruin?  History  has  fur- 
nished no  such  example  of  a  government,  one  half  free  and.  the  other 
half  enslaved.  The  imagination  of  Milton  in  bis  great  sorrow,  with 
the  holy  light  of  heaven  shut  out  forever  from  his  eyes,  has  drawn 
that  picture  in  the  "  portress  of  hell-gates."  There  we  behold  the 
head,  breast,  and  arms  of  a  lovely  woman,  fair  as  Liberty  herself ;  but 
below  the  Avaist  are  seen  in  loathsome  contrast  the  hideous  forms  of 


59 

beasts,  of  serpents,  of  satyrs,  and  of  demons,  the  horrid  types  of  des- 
potism and  slavery.  That  picture  was  justly  drawn  by  the  patriot 
poet  in  "  Paradise  Lost ; "  and  when  it  shall  displace  the  pure  and 
beautiful  image  of  American  liberty,  always  rightly  presented  to  our 
eyes  as  a  virgin  in  the  loveliest  form  of  attraction  to  the  hearts  of  men, 
it  will  be  in  the  land  of  "  liberty  lost." 

No,  this  Government  cannot  last  if  this  is  to  be  its  character. 
It  is  an  impossibility.  The  Southern  States  must  be  free  and  in- 
dependent, or  the  Northern  States  will  soon  be  enslaved  and  de- 
graded with  their  southern  sisters.  A  government  that  exercises 
tyranny,  that  practices  oppression,  that  enslaves  whole  communities, 
must  lose  its  love  of  liberty — must  become  indifferent  to  the  forms 
and  principles  of  popular  freedom,  and  will  soon  overthrow  and  destroy 
not  only  the  forms  but  the  substance  of  liberty  itself.  This  must  be 
true.  Every  violation  of  the  rights  of  the  South,  every  sacrifice  of 
our  constitutional  guarantees,  every  disruption  of  the  principles  of 
good  government,  every  unlawful  precedent,  every  example  of  vio- 
lence, each  instance  of  indifference  to  constitutional  duty  exhibited 
to  us  is  a  blow,  a  thrust,  it  may  be  a  deadly  wound  to  popular  govern- 
ment itself. 

The  Constitution  which  protects  and  defends  and  regulates  Ameri- 
can liberty  cannot  be  stabbed,  wounded,  prostrated  in  Louisiana ; 
cannot  be  violated,  prostituted,  abused  in  Mississippi;  cannot  be 
awed,  terrified,  intimidated  in  Arkansas;  cannot  be  menaced,  threat- 
ened, imperiled  in  North  Carolina  and  Georgia,  and  survive  and 
live  in  health  and  vigor  to  shield  and  bless  New  York  and  Ohio. 
Every  blow  inflicted  on  the  fundamental  charter  of  American  liberty 
weakens  all  its  just  powers  and  tends  to  reduce  it  to  the  contempt 
of  mankind.  The  pure  form  and  spirit  of  constitutional  liberty  once, 
twice,  thrice  violated,  must  lose  the  power  of  virtue,  the  beauty  of 
chastity,  and  either  become  the  Venus  of  despotism,  or  like  the  modeL 
of  Roman  virtue,  perish  with  its  dishonor.  Nor  would  the  sacrifice 
of  this  noblest  victim  appease  the  passion  for  power. 

Upon  what  line,  let  me  ask  you,  will  unconstitutional  ambition 
pause  ?  Do  you  think  it  will  respect  geographical  boundaries  or  State 
limits  ?  Do  you  suppose  it  will  halt  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac,  or 
will  it  turn  back  from  the  waters  of  the  Ohio  ?  Senators,  do  not  de- 
lude yourselves.  If  you  do  not  desire,  and  I  know  you  do  not,  that 
these  noble  rivers  should  be  the  Rubicons  of  some  future  Ctesar,  do 
not  follow  the  blind  confidence  of  Pompey,  when  he  boasted  that  he 
"could  raise  armies  with  the  stamp  of  his  foot"  to  crush  the  con- 
queror of  Gaul;  but  rebuke,  chasten,  and  while  you  have  the  strength 
forever  put  an  end  to  that  usurpation  and  abuse  of  power  which,  be- 
ginning in  the  South,  may  at  some  day  march  over  the  liberties  of 
the  North 'and  erect  upon  the  ruins  of  both  another  empire  as  brilliant 
and  as  grand  as  the  one  which  Augustus  founded,  and  as  dark,  as 
miserable,  and  as  infamous  as  that  which  ended  with  the  last  of  the 
Caesars.  Power,  unlawful  power,  never  has  and  never  will  stop  in  its 
career.  It  grows  on  what  it  feeds.  Unbridle  it,  and,  like  the  impris- 
oned winds  let  loose,  it  spreads ;  its  force  swells  and  gathers  new 
strength,  and  nothing  stays  its  march  until  all  resistance  and  opposi- 
tion are  swept  before  it. 

Do  not  deceive  yourselves.  You  cannot  confine  within  the  limits 
of  prostrate  and  trampled  Louisiana  the  spirit  or  the  operation  of 
unconstitutional  usurpation.  That  once  fair  State  will  not  be,  un- 
less you  make  it  so,  the  grave  of  unauthorized  power — Heaven 
forbid  that  it  should  be  the  grave  of  the  Constitution.     I  think  we 


60 

can  already  see  the  bared  arms  of  military  ascendency  stretching  out 
for  further  conquest  and  seizing  the  shrinking  forms  of  two  neigh- 
boring States.  Shall  that  power  put  its  feet  upon  their  necks  and 
trample  in  the  dust  what  is  left  of  their  liberties  ?  It  is  not  in 
the  nature  of  unlawful  power  to  regulate  itself ;  an  excess,  a  wrong, 
a  usurpation  itself,  it  has  no  capacity  to  limit  or  check  its  own 
abuse.  It  can  only  exist  by  advancing;  it  dares  not  pause  in  modera- 
tion ;  the  very  necessities  of  its  own  being,  the  very  laws  of  its  life 
inexorably  drive  it  to  the  extremest  limits  of  possible  conquest.  The 
violation  of  one  law  compels  the  violation  of  another,  the  overthrow 
of  one  principle  anticipates  the  overthrow  of  another,  the  subversion 
of  one  guarantee  makes  the  subversion  of  another  guarantee  neces- 
sary to  sustain  the  first  breach,  and  usurpation  cannot  and  dare  not 
pause,  cannot  hesitate  until  every  barrier,  obstacle,  impediment  to 
its  success  is  demolished  and  removed.  It  trembles  for  its  existence 
.  while  any  of  the  citadels  of  liberty  or  law  remain  unsubdued.  They 
stand  as  a  constant  menace  and  peril  to  its  permanence.  No  sooner 
does  the  gracious  Duncan  sleep  well  in  his  grave  than  the  mind  of 
Macbeth  is  full  of  scorpions,  for  "  Banquo  and  his  Fleance  live,"  and 
soon  all  causes  give  way  to  his  own  good  and  he  is 

In  blood 
Stept  in  so  far,  that,  should  he  wade  no  more, 
Returning  were  as  tedious  as  go  o'er. 

It  was  the  inexorable  destiny  of  usurped  power  which  never  per- 
mitted the  First  Napoleon  to  repose  upon  his  victories.  That  destiny 
drove  him  to  Egypt,  drove  him  to  Russia,  drove  him  to  Waterloo, 
and  drove  him  to  his  ruin ;  and  had  it  not  terminated  in  his  over- 
throw his  usurped  power  could  have  been  consummated  in  nothing 
but  the  subversion  of  all  established  government  and  liberty  in 
Europe. 

Laws  are  silent  under  the  thunders  of  artillery ;  in  the  blaze  of 
bayonets  their  lights  are  eclipsed  and  amid  clashing  sabers  their 
forms  perish.  Before  the  tread  and  tramp  of  armed  legions  their 
unshielded  ministers  are  powerless.  Let  it  never  be  forgotten  that 
the  sword  is  the  mortal  enemy  of  liberty,  the  argument  that  tyrants 
throw  into  the  scales  of  justice.  But  unhappily  for  mankind  there  is 
something  in  the  splendor  of  military  display  that  captivates  the 
human  heart.  The  sword  has  its  fatal  charms.  "The  pride,  pomp, 
and  circumstance  of  glorious  war, "  the  caparisoned  steed,  the 
gorgeous  pavilion,  the  mounted  warrior,  the  stir  of  martial  music 
dazzle  and  blind  nlen  to  the  wrongs  of  which  they  are  the  instru- 
ments. Admiration  and  gratitude  for  distinguished  military  service 
are  just  and  noble  sentiments,  honoring  no  less  those  who  receive 
than  those  who  render  them,  when  exercised  with  respect  for 
the  laws  of  the  country  and  the  rights  of  the  people.  But  these 
sentiments  become  crimes  when  they  obscure  the  love  of  liberty  or 
defend  the  abuses  of  power.  Let  us  beware  of  the  fascinations  of 
the  sword;  familiarity  with  it  is  certain  contempt  for  law.  The 
two  cannot  embrace,  and  all  history  warns  us  which  falls. 

Mr.  President,  the  American  people  are  not  exempt  from  the  imper- 
fections of  men,  and  we  shall  quickly  advance  headlong  to  the  down- 
fall of  our  liberties  unless  we  consider  the  warning  lessons  of  those 
who  have  gone  before  us.  We  have  been  repeatedly  told  in  this  de- 
bate that  in  republican  America  there  is  no  danger  to  be  feared  from 
military  ascendency.  The  eloquent  Senator  from  New  Jersey  with 
patriotic  ardor  asked,  What  would  become  of  our  little  Army  of 
thirty  thousand  men  before  the  indignant  rebuke  of  millions  of  free- 


61 

men?  Has  the  learned  Senator  forgotten  that  Caesar  did  not  have 
thirty  thousand  men  when  he  left  Gaul  and  overthrew  the  liberty  of 
six  hundred  years?  Sir,  far  he  it  from  me  to  intimate  that  there  are 
any  among  us  who  would  willfully  destroy  the  institutions  of  their 
country.  I  cast  no  suspicions,  for  I  have  none,  upon  the  patriotism 
of  my  countrymen.  They  no  doubt  desire  as  ardently  as  I  do  that 
this  beneficent  Government  should  be  perpetuated  in  all  its  useful- 
ness and  glory  to  distant  ages. 

But,  Senators,  the  Constitution  intrusts  to  us  in  perhaps  the  high- 
est degree  the  guardianship  of  its  rights,  and  we  should  deserve 
universal  execration  if  we  were  not  faithful  to  the  duty.  Sir,  I 
would  be  unwilling  to  trust  myself  with  the  liberties  of  my  country. 
When  statesmen  do  not  fear  to  commit  these  liberties  to  the  hands 
of  any  man  I  tremble  for  American  freedom,  for  its  sentinels  will 
sleep  with  fatal  security.  Human  wisdom  and  human  virtue  are 
neither  perfect,  and  we  must  provide  against  the  errors  of  both.  The 
liberties  which  a  dictator  preserves  have  already  lost  their  virtue. 
Liberty  protected  by  despotism  is  but  a  name;  despotism  is  the 
government.  I,  sir,  am  afraid,  ever  afraid  of  military  ascendency. 
Every  lesson  of  history  commands  me  to  fear  it.  What  is  the  history 
of  all  republics?  In  some  necessity  of  the  state  the  civil  supremacy 
gives  way  to  the  military  power.  This  becomes  the  habit  of  govern- 
ment, until  some  chieftain,  popular  with  the  army  and  with  the  peo- 
ple, succeeds  in  making  both  his  slaves. 

This  is  the  history  of  the  world.  It  is  the  story  of  the  downfall  of 
liberty  everywhere.  Caesar's  three  hundred  victories  paved  his  road 
to  the  Eoman  Empire;  Napoleon's  triumphs  as  general  of  the  army 
and  first  consul  prepared  his  way  to  the  crown  of  France  ;  but  for 
his  moderation  and  virtue  and  supreme  patriotism  "the  services  and 
successes  of  Washington  would  have  made  him  sovereign  of  the 
American  people.  The  picture  in  the  Kotunda  that  represents  the 
popular  general  of  the  army  in  the  act  of  surrendering  his  sword  to 
the  Congress  of  his  country  should  not  perpetuate  the  immortal  deed 
on  canvas  alone,  but  should  imprint  it  in  light  that  will  live  for- 
ever in  the  hearts  of  the  people.  That  great  sword  was  never  so 
bright  as  when  sheathed  and  surrendered  to  the  majesty  of  law. 
But  few,  few  have  been  the  swords  that  have  shone  with  that  moral 
glory.  That  best  picture  of  Washington  should  be  placed  where 
those  who  are  expected  to  follow  his  illustrious  example  should  daily 
behold  its  grandeur  and  be  inspired  by  its  patriotism  and  virtue. 

And  as  the  examples  of  Washington  are  never  without  instruction 
and  benefit,  it  will  be  well  to  contemplate  his  prudent  steps  in  the 
discharge  of  that  most  delicate  duty — the  suppression  of  an  insur- 
rection in  a  State  by  the  National  Government.  In  Marshall's  Life 
of  Washington,  giving  an  account  of  the  insurrection  in  Pennsyl- 
vania in  1794,  we  find  this  passage: 

"While  the  necessary  steps  were  taking  to  bring  this  force  into  the  field,  a  last  essay 
was  made  to  render  its  employment  unnecessary.  The  Attorney-General,  who  was 
a  citizen  of  Pennsylvania ;  Judge  Gates,  of  the  superior  court ;  and  Mr.  Koss,  a  Sen- 
ator representing  that  State,  who  was  particularly  popular  in  the  western  country, 
were  deputed  by  the  Government  to  be  the  bearers  of  a  general  amnesty  for  past 
offenses,  on  the  sole  condition  of  future  obedience  to  the  laws. 

It  having  been  deemed  advisable  that  the  executive  of  the  State  in  which  the 
insurrection  had  taken  place  should  act  in  concert  with  that  of  the  United  States, 
a  proclamation  was  also  issued  by  Governor  Mifflin,  and  commissioners  were  ap- 
pointed by  him  to  unite  with  those  of  the  General  Government. 

And  a  few  pages  further  we  are  told  that  the  "  President  issued  a 
second  proclamation,"  and  then  we  see  that — 


62 

The  President,  in  person,  visited  each  division  of  the  Army ;  but  being  confident 
that  the  force  employed  must  look  down  all  resistance,  he  left  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  to  accompany  it,  and  returned  himself  to  Philadelphia,  at  which  place 
the  approaching  session  of  Congress  rendered  his  presence  almost  indispensably 
necessary. 

And  we  learn  also  that — 

On  the  19th  the  President  met  both  Houses  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  in  order  to 
make,  personally,  those  communications  which  the  state  of  the  nation  required. 

As  many  would  read  the  speech  who  might  not  peruse  the  documents  which  had 
been  published  for  the  purpose  of  unfolding  the  conduct  of  Government  to  the  in- 
surgents, the  President  thought  proper  to  detail  at  considerable  length  the  progress 
of  opposition  to  the  laws,  the  means  employed  both  by  the  Legislature  and  Exec- 
utive to  appease  the  discontents  which  had  been  fomented,  and  the  measures 
which  he  had  finally  taken"  to  reduce  the  refractory  to  submission. — Marshall's 
Life  of  Washington,  volume  5,  pages  584,  589,  595. 

In  the  letter  of  instruction  from  Alexander  Hamilton,  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  under  Washington,  to  General  Lee,  then  commanding 
the  Army  to  suppress  the  insurrection,  dated  Octoher  20,  1794,  occurs 
this  passage  : 

You  are  to  exert  yourself  by  all  possible  means  to  preserve  discipline  among  the 
troops,  particularly  a  scrupulous  regard  to  the  rights  of  persons  and  property  and 
a  respect  for  the  authority  of  the  civil  magistrate ;  taking  especial  care  to  inculcate 
and  cause  to  be  observed  this  principle :  that  the  duties  of  the  Army  are  confined 
to  the  attacking  and  subduing  of  armed  opponents  of  the  laws,  and  to  the  support- 
ing and  aiding  of  the  civil  officers  in  the  execution  of  their  functions. 

And  in  Washington's  own  letter  of  the  same  date,  written  to  Gen- 
eral Lee,  we  find  this  paragraph  : 

There  is  but  one  other  point  on  which  I  think  it  proper  to  add  a  special  recom- 
mendation ;  it  is,  that  every  officer  and  soldier  will  constantly  bear  in  mind  that 
he  comes  to  support  the  laws,  and  that  it  would  be  peculiarly  unbecoming  in  him 
to  be  in  any  way  the  infractor  of  them  ;  that  the  essential  principles  of  a  free  gov- 
ernment confine  the  province  of  the  military,  when  called  forth  on  such  occasions, 
to  these  two  objects :  first,  to  combat  and  subdue  all  who  may  be  found  in  arms  in 
opposition  to  the  national  will  and  authority ;  secondly,  to  aid  and  support  the  civil 
magistrates  in  bringing  offenders  to  justice.  The  dispensation  of  this  justice  be- 
longs to  the  civil  magistrate ;  and  let  it  ever  be  our  pride  and  our  glory  to  leave  the 
sacred  deposit  there  inviolate. — Sparks's  Writings  of  Washingt07i,  volume  10,  pages 
447,  448. 

And  in  his  letter  to  Alexander  Hamilton,  of  Octoher  31,  1794,  from 
Philadelphia,  he  says : 

Press  the  governors  to  be  pointed  in  ordering  the  officers  under  their  respective 
commands  to  march  back  with  their  respective  corps  ;  and  to  see  that  the  inhabit- 
ants meet  with  no  disgraceful  insults  or  injuries  from  them. — Sparks's  Writings  of 
Washington,  volume  10,  page  450. 

Thus,  we  see  the  prudence,  the  care,  the  anxiety,  the  patriotism 
with  which  Washington  proceeded  in  suppressing  the  first  insur- 
rection that  broke  out  after  the  formation  of  our  Government.  He 
issues  a  first  and  then  a  second  proclamation.  He  sends  a  commis- 
sion of  three  distinguished  citizens  of  the  country,  one  his  Attorney- 
General,  and  all  popular  and  influential  gentlemen  with  the  insur- 
gents, to  confer  with  them  and  offer  full  amnesty.  He  influences  the 
governor  of  Pennsylvania  to  appoint  a  similar  commission  for  the 
same  purpose.  He  visits  the  divisions  of  the  Army  in  person  '•'  to  ob- 
tain more  correct  information;"  "He  leaves  his  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  with  the  Army  in  his  absence."  He  meets  both  Houses  of 
Congress  and  "thinks  proper  to  detail  to  them  at  considerable  length  " 
the  fullest  advice  of  his  conduct.  He  publishes  his  address  for  the 
information  of  the  country,  and  "he  takes  special  care  to  inculcate 
and  causes  to  be  observed  this  principle,"  "the  military  is  always 
to  be  subordinate  to  the  civil  authority,"  and  that  "  the  soldiers  are 
never  to  insult  or  injure  the  people." 


63 

Such  are  the  lessons  of  Washington,  widely  different  from  those  of 
Caesar,  Cromwell,  and  Napoleon.  In  these  lessons  we  shall  look  in 
vain  for  precedents  for  the  recent  conduct  of  our  Army  in  Louisiana. 
I  trust  that  these  wise,  prudent,  patriotic,  successful  examples  of 
the  Father-President  of  the  Republic  may  always  commend  them- 
selves to  the  admiration  and  imitation  of  his  successors.  I  hold  them 
up  to-day  as  lights  for  the  encouragement  and  guidance  of  his  coun- 
trymen. Senators,  let  us  at  least  be  inspired  by  their  patriotism  and 
directed  by  their  wisdom. 

The  time  will  come,  when  the  excitements  of  this  heated  hour  are 
gone,  that  the  country  will  thank  the  South  for  the  exhibition  of 
that  virtue  which  saved  the  Southern  States  from  the  fate  of  Mexico 
and  Jamaica.  You  are  not  now  in  a  temper  to  appreciate  this  fact, 
but  time,  the  great  arbiter,  will  do  justice,  and  for  that  judgment 
we  must  wait.  History  will  write  it  down  that  your  policy  if  ac- 
complished would  have  turned  the  Southern  States  over  into  the 
hands  of  the  newly  emancipated  blacks  and  the  desperate  and  cor- 
rupt men  who  united  with  them.  It  will  record  the  fact  that  this 
party  under  the  reconstruction  acts  obtained  possession  and  control 
of  most  of  the  Southern  States,  and  established  over  them  a  govern- 
ment of  supreme  and  startling  wickedness,  exceeding  in  corruption 
and  licentiousness  the  darkest  drama  of  the  Middle  Ages.  It  will 
paint  with  the  pen  of  Gibbon  or  Macaulay  for  the  instruction  of 
future  ages  that  black  picture  of  fraud  and  infamy  from  which  I  shall 
not  this  day  lift  the  veil,  which  came  like  a  plague  over  the  prostrate 
and  bound  South.  It  will  tell  of  the  ruin,  the  waste,  and  the  despair. 
It  will  then  draw  the  faint  lines  of  hope  and  courage,  and  show  the 
great  heart  of  our  people  rising  in  its  might  to  break  the  power  that 
crushed  it.  Sir,  the  struggle  was  long  and  desperate — often  doubtful ; 
the  cause  of  good  government  often  trembled  in  the  balance,  and 
-many  times  it  seemed  that  the  light  would  go  out  and  nothing  but 
darkness  and  dismay  be  left  on  the  face  of  our  country.  It  was  not 
due  to  the  General  Government  that  the  Southern  States  did  not 
succumb  in  this  crisis,  for  the  authority  of  the  Government  was  ar- 
rayed on  the  side  of  those  who  were  destroying  the  South.  It  was  not 
due  to  the  reconstruction  acts,  for  they  proscribed  and  disabled  the 
best  men  of  the  South.  It  was  not  due  to  the  republican  party,  for 
it  supported  and  sustained  the  despoilers  of  our  substance  and  liber- 
ties. 

To  what  cause  is  due  the  deliverance  of  the  South  from  that  mis- 
rule which  in  two  short  years  wrought  more  ruin  thaii  the  war  ?  It 
is  due  solely,  but  proudly  and  justly  due  to  the  courage,  the  faith, 
the  prudence,  the  watchfulness,  and  the  unwavering  devotion  of  the 
southern  people  to  the  ever-living  principles  of  constitutional  govern- 
ment. To  these  great  qualities  of  our  people  we  are  this  day  indebted 
that  eight  millions  of  people  are  not  in  revolution,  in  anarchy,  in 
chaos,  in  a  living  death  of  misery  and  shame.  There  is  no  grander 
achievement  than  the  rescue  of  the  Southern  States  by  her  own  peo- 
ple from  the  mortal  dangers  that  environed  them.  Our  forefathers 
met  no  such  odds  during  or  after  the  Revolution.  The  English  people 
from  whom  we  are  descended  at  no  time  encountered  such  compli- 
cated evils  and  no  people  ever  displayed  nobler  qualities  than  the 
people  of  the  South  in  this  the  gloomiest  period  of  her  history.  Was 
their  forbearance  ever  equaled?  When  before  was  a  proud,  warlike 
race  subjected  to  the  domination  of  their  recent  slaves  ?  Has  their 
courage  been  surpassed  ?  What  other  people  disarmed,  despoiled,  sur- 
rounded by  armies,  and  exhausted  by  disastrous  war  would  not  have 


64 

surrendered  principle '?  Has  their  patriotism  been  exceeded  ?  When 
before  did  a  people  lose  so  much  property,  suffer  so  many  disappoint- 
ments, bear  so  many  vicissitudes,  and  keep  faith  to  their  country  t  Has 
their  virtue  ever  been  eclipsed  ?  Neither  threats,  nor  blandishments, 
nor  promises,  nor  preferments,  nor  fears,  nor  hopes  have  for  one  mo- 
ment seduced  them  from  fidelity  to  their  convictions  of  duty. 

Senators,  at  any  time  ru  the  last  ten  years,  if  the  people  of  the  South 
could  have  embraced  the  republican  party,  they  might  have  basked 
in  the  smiles  of  the  Administration  and  silenced  every  accusation 
against  them.  They  thought  they  saw  the  tendency  of  that  party 
was  to  their  degradation  and  the  ruin  of  their  country,  and  they 
could  not  unite  with  it.  Is  it  a  just  cause  of  offense  that  they  did  not 
purchase  place  and  amnesty  at  the  sacrifice  of  what  they  believed 
right?  Let  us  suppose  for  one  moment  that  instead  of  resisting  the 
republican  party  at  the  South  the  white  people  of  the  South  had 
joined  the  negroes,  the  adventurers,  and  the  corrupt  and  misguided 
natives  who  seized  the  State  governments  after  reconstruction  and 
united  in  that  desperate  and  reckless  movement  against  all  pub- 
lic virtue  and  private  respect.  Let  me  ask  what  would  be  the  con- 
dition now  of  the  Southern  States  ?  Human  imagination  can  con- 
ceive nothing  so  horrible.  United  with  undivided  energy  aud  reso- 
lution against  them,  we  barely  saved  the  vestiges  of  government  and 
the  fragments  of  property  from  demoralization  and  rapacity  ?  Had 
we  presented  no  check,  no  obstacle  to  their  schemes,  but  fallen  in 
with  their  policy,  how  unutterably  deplorable  would  have  been  the 
result  ? 

Who  has  saved  the  country  from  those  accursed  consequences  ?  Who 
has  been  the  great  conservative  health  element  of  the  South  ?  Who 
has  rebuked  public  spoliation  ?  Who  has  exposed  enormous  public 
crime?  Who  has  checked  extravagant  public  expenditure?  Who 
has  resisted  general  corruption  ?  Who  has  stood  faithfully  by  consti- 
tutional government  ?  Who  has  maintained  public  morality  and  social 
order  ?  Who  has  driven  from  the  country  the  authors  of  high  state 
crimes,  and  who  has  brought  to  light  and  exposed  to  the  civilized 
world  for  just  indignation  and  punishment  the  usurpations,  the  tyr- 
annies, the  rampant  violations  of  all  law  that  have  been  committed  in 
the  South  ?  And  yet  we  are  denounced  as  great  criminals,  sympa- 
thizers with  murder,  accomplices  of  assassins,  organizers  of  horrid 
crime  to  accomplish  political  success.  Yes,  sir ;  the  time  will  come 
when  the  country  will  do  justice  to  our  motives  and  our  conduct,  and 
the  true  character  and  cause  of  our  people  will  appear  as  bright  as 
the  day. 

Mr.  President,  is  this  hostility  between  the  sections  never  to  cease? 
Is  the  temple  of  Janus  never  to  be  closed?  Will  not  a  war  which 
cost  so  much  precious  blood,  so  much  dear-bought  treasure,  suffice  for 
this  insatiate  passion  ?  Have  we  not  had  suffering  enough?  What 
other  sacrifice  is  necessary  to  appease  this  mad  demon,  this  gory  Mo- 
loch of  hate  ?  Are  more  priceless  offerings  yet  to  be  burned  on  his 
altars  before  peace  will  come  ?  Will  nothing  appease  this  destructive 
god  of  discord  but  the  ruin,  the  overthrow  of  free  government,  and 
the  perpetual  misery  and  strife  of  this  great  people  ?  Is  this  war, 
this  feud,  to  last  between  the  sections  forever?  Is  there  nothing  that 
will  stop  its  fury,  nothing  that  will  quell  its  flames,  nothing  that  will 
allay  the  wild  winds  that  fan  its  fires  ?  It  has  not  been  quenched  in 
blood,  it  has  not  been  exhausted  in  desolation  ;  the  distress,  agony, 
and  sorrow  of  eight  millions  of  people  have  not  softened  its  angry 
spirit;  ten  years  of  bitter  anguish  have  but  exasperated  its  malignant 


65 

heat.  It  is  here  to-day  in  unabated  fierceness,  spreading  dismay  and 
baleful  shadows  over  all  the  land.  Is  there  no  exorcism  for  this  hate- 
ful fiend  of  dissension?  No  calm,  quiet  spirit  to  walk  on  the  bitter 
waters  of  sectional  strife  and  bid  them  be  still  ? 

Senators,  the  highest  and  holiest  motives  that  ever  inspired  the 
breasts  of  mortals  should  impel  us  here  on  this  floor  to  compose  this 
question  forever  and  give  peace  and  repose  to  the  entire  country. 
The  South  demands  it  to  secure  and  restore  her  wasted  fortunes,  and  to 
educate  her  people,  and  to  give  them  comfort  and  material  life.  The 
North  requires  it  that  she  may  have  a  market  for  her  products  and 
a  great  support  in  all  times  of  distress  from  whatever  cause  or  quarter 
it  may  come.  Both  need  it  for  their  mutual  safety,  happiness,  honor, 
#ud  existence.  It  is  our  duty  to  settle  this  disturbing  and  harass- 
ing difference.  We  cannot  escape  it ;  we  cannot  leave  it  to  time  ;  we 
cannot  trifle  and  palter  with  it.  It  involves  the  life  of  the  nation, 
the  happiness  of  millions,  the  fate  of  free  government  on  the  earth. 
If  we  are  not  equal  to  the  great  event,  if  we  have  not  the  ability 
and  patriotism  to  discharge  it,  if  we  are  not  able  to  accomplish  this 
the  first  object  of  our  office,  let  us  at  least  have  the  manly  courage  to 
acknowledge  our  weakness  and  bravely  surrender  our  places  to  those 
who  are  superior  to  our  infirmities,  and  who  cau  and  will  march  up 
to  the  line  of  this  high  duty  and  wisely  and  nobly  perform  it.  We 
can  at  least  do  that ;  and  if  we  can  render  no  other  or  better  service 
to  our  country,  we  ought  certainly  to  be  men  and  give  way  to  those 
who  can. 

The  great  father  of  our  country,  in  his  farewell  address,  the  last 
words  he  spoke  to  the  nation,  warned  us  against  these  sectional  lines 
and  divisions.  We  did  not  heed  that  paternal  warning.  Disobe- 
dience to  it  brought  us  innumerable  woes,  and  there  is  but  one  road 
back  to  a  condition  of  peace,  prosperity,  and  liberty.  That  road  was 
marked  out  by  the  founders  of  the  Eepublic,  and  unless  it  be  faith- 
fully followed,  we  will  wander  off  into  a  wild  career  of  uncertainty 
and  tumult,  ending  finally,  where  all  the  other  free  governments  have 
ended,  in  despotism.  Remember  the  civil  wars  of  the  Grecian  repub- 
lics were  soon  followed  by  the  Roman,  along  the  same  road,  from  free- 
dom. The  wars  between  Athens  and  Sparta,  between  Sparta  and 
Boeotia,  between  first  two  and  finally  all  the  free  states  of  Attica,  left 
Greece  an  easy  victim  for  Philip.  Their  dissensions,  their  wars,  their 
factions  broke  down  the  spirit  of  liberty,  and  the  Greeks  who,  when 
united,  made  Thermopylae,  Salamis,  and  Platea  immortal,  succumbed, 
when  divided,  to  Macedon  almost  without  a  struggle,  and  forever  oblit- 
erated their  greatness  and  their  liberties.  Heaven  forbid  that  we 
should  repeat  their  melancholy  examples. 

Mr.  President,  are  we  to  revive  here  the  strifes  of  the  unhappy  years 
that  preceded  the  war?  Are  these  noble  Halls,  dedicated  to  human 
liberty,  to  become  arenas  for  the  exhibition  of  mad  passions?  Is 
the  genius,  the  courage,  the  resistless  energy  of  this  wonderful  people 
to  be  perverted  and  wasted  here  in  angry  controversy,  in  mutual  crim- 
ination and  recrimination,  in  wicked,  blind  efforts  to  pull  down  and 
destroy  the  great  sections  of  the  Union  ?  Are  all  the  powers  of  our 
minds  and  the  forces  of  our  hearts  to  be  forever  enlisted  in  the  exe- 
crable attempt  to  destroy  and  degrade  the  character  of  sister  States? 
Is  discord  to  reign  here  forever  ?  Senators,  the  terrible  calamities  of 
such  a  course  cannot  be  doubted.  I  will  not  even  dare  to  foresee  or 
predict  them.  I  will  simply  say  how  much  nobler,  grander,  wiser 
would  we  be  if  we  would  unite  all  our  faculties,  our  hopes,  our  pur- 
poses, our  aims,  our  efforts  in  the  work  of  pacifying  all  our  con- 

5   R 


66 

flicts,  reforming  our  errors,  improving  onr  institutions,  and  giving 
strength,  stability,  beauty,  and  beneficence  to  our  Government. 

Have  we  no  objects  to  engage  our  talents  or  excite  our  aspirations 
but  hostile  assaults  and  counter  assaults  upon  our  own  people  ?  Are 
there  no  other  aims  or  hopes  to  government  ?  Are  these  the  grand 
purposes  written  on  the  face  of  the  Constitution  for  which  the  Gov- 
ernment was  established  ?  Is  this  the  way  to  "  form  a  more  perfect 
Union "  ?  Is  this  the  way  ".  to  provide  for  the  common  defense  ?  " 
Is  this  the  way  "  to  insure  domestic  tranquillity  V  Is  this  the  way 
"to  promote  the  general  welfare  ?  "  Is  this  the  way  "to  transmit 
the  blessings  of  liberty  to  our  children?"  Sir,  a  continent,  em- 
braced by  the  great  oceans  of  commerce  and  extending  through 
all  the  degrees  of  latitude,  and  receiving  as  its  own  the  children  o# 
all  the  world,  is  ours,  ours  to  enjoy,  to  improve,  to  enlighten,  to  beau- 
tify, and  to  bless.  Strife,  feuds,  hates  will  do  none  of  these  good  works. 
-  Devote  one-half  the  earnest  passion,  the  excited  intellect,  the  ardent 
exertion  to  reconcile,  restore,  benefit,  and  advance  the  country  that 
is  madly  and  wickedly  spent  in  attempts  to  array  one  portion  against 
the  other,  to  oppress  one  portion  to  aggrandize  the  other,  to  traduce 
one  portion  to  exalt  the  other,  and  we  shall  build  up  here  in  this 
western  world  an  example  of  human  wisdom  and  virtue  far  surpass- 
ing any  vision  of  splendor  and  happiness  that  human  imagination 
has  yet  conceived. 

Mr.  President,  what  is  the  temper  and  spirit  of  the  southern  peo- 
ple at  this  time  ?  You  would  doubtless  like  to  learn  it  exactly  froni 
one  who  has  the  opportunity  of  knowing  it,  who  has  the  authority 
to  represent  it,  and  who  can  also  speak  it  from  his  own  bosom.  I 
know  no  better  way  of  describing  it  than  by  saying  that  there  are 
two  illustrious  characters  in  Roman  history  who  for  two  thousand 
years  have  divided  the  admiration  of  mankind,  and  whose  names 
have  become  the  synonyms  of  patriotic  sacrifice.  The  first  is  Quintus 
Curtius,  mounted  on  his  brave  horse  and  in  the  presence  of  the  Eoman 
people  riding  calmly  into  the  yawning  gulf  in  the  forum  to  save  his 
country ;  the  second  is  Marcus  Brutus,  standing  in  the  capitol  with 
the  dagger  with  which  he  stabbed  Caesar  and  with  which  he  was 
ready  to  stab  himself — both  among  the  greatest  examples  of  devo- 
tion to  country.  Mr.  President,  were  I  to  express  the  patriotic  sen-, 
timent  of  the  South  at  this  hour,  I  would  simply  say  that  there  are 
thousands  in  the  South  who  would  follow  the  example  of  Curtius 
and  willingly  walk  into  the  threatening  gulf,  if  the  sacrifice  will 
close  its  deepening  abyss  and  give  peace  and  liberty  to  the  country, 
and  there  is  not  one  who  is  mad  enough  to  play  the  role  of  Brutus. 
We  have  lost  none  of  our  love  of  liberty,  none  of  our  independent 
spirit,  none  of  our  attachment  to  our  country,  none  of  our  admiration 
for  the  sublime  virtue  of  the  "  last  of  the  Romans ;"  but  we  consider 
that  peace  is  a  necessity  with  us,  and  we  hope  that  a  returning  sense 
of  justice  at  the  North  will  unite  with  us  in  preserving  liberty,  law, 
and  constitutional  government. 

We  have  not  yet  despaired  of  the  influences  of  reason,  truth,  equity, 
right,  and  interest  in  the  opinion  of  the  great  but  often  mistaken 
North.  We  have  learned  that  patriots  have  a  higher  duty  to  perform 
than  to  follow  the  example  of  Cato  at  Utica.  It  is  sometimes  nobler 
to  live  and  suffer  for  your  country  than  it  is  to  die  for  it.  The  patri- 
otism of  Curtius  saved  the  seven -hilled  city ;  the  patriotism  of 
Brutus  precipitated  the  downfall  of  Eoman  liberty.  Preserving  then 
the  fires  of  liberty  in  our  hearts  as  sacredly  and  devotedly  as  the 
vestal  virgins  kept  them  burning  on  their  ever-blazing  altars,  and 


67 

relying  upon  the  ultimate  patriotism  of  the  North,  we  are  resolved 
with  heroic  patience  to  stand  around  and  guard  the  temples  of  the 
nation's  peace  and  to  manifest  in  its  defense  and  preservation,  if 
possible,  a  higher  and  holier  and  firmer  devotion  and  fortitude  than 
our  brave  men  displayed  on  the  battle-field.  We  are  now  in  the  lines,  in 
the  intrenchments,  in  the  bulwarks  of  the  peace,  harmony,  prosperity, 
and  union  of  this  great  people  and  country ;  and  fanaticism,  sectional 
hatred,  unjust  animosities  and  prejudices  and  passions  cannot  prevail 
against  us.  No,  sir,  we  shall  be  successful.  Already  I  see  the  snows 
of  the  great  North  dissolving  and  soon  to  flow  in  warm  and  genial 
streams  to  the  bosom  of  the  South ;  already  I  see  its  great  systems  of 
industry  awakening  and  beholding  in  the  ruin  of  the  South  the  cer- 
tain destruction  of  their  own  prosperity  ;  already  I  discern  its  great 
heart  beginning  to  warm  under  the  influence  of  gentle  light  from  the 
South  and  to  open  its  deepest  and  broadest  sympathies  for  our  suffer- 
ings and  our  wrongs.  Already  from  the  "  clear  upper  sky,"  where  the 
serene  spirits  of  the  great  founders  of  American  liberty  and  govern- 
ment shine,  come  pouring  down  upon  us  streams  of  fervent  and 
radiant  light,  rekindling  in  our  hearts  the  fires  of  patriotism  and 
duty  and  mutual  forbearance  that  animated  their  great  souls. 

From  the  summit  of  Bunker  Hill  the  voice  of  American  history  and 
patriotism  spoke  to  the  heart  of  Mr.  Sumner,  the  great  apostle  of 
emancipation,  and  commanded  him  to  remember  the  devotion  and 
sacrifices  of  the  South  in  the  "times  that  tried  men's  souls,"  and  he 
could  not  sleep  under  the  shadows  of  that  eloquent  stone  until  he  had 
made  an  effort  to  extinguish  the  hostile  memories  of  war.  From 
every  battle  of  the  Revolution  arise  the  shades  of  immortal  martyrs 
and  command  us  to  end  this  strife.  From  the  bloody  and  honorable 
fields  on  the  northern  lakes,  around  this  capital  and  from  the  plains  of 
New  Orleans,  from  the  gallant  decks  of  the  proud  Navy  that  proclaimed 
that  the  universal  seas  should  be  free  and  from  the  yet  fresh  victories 
in  Mexico,  from  all  comes  an  appeal  for  peace.  Ah,  Mr.  President,  does 
not  the  same  appeal  with  more  tender  and  touching  pathos  speak  to 
us  from  Manassas,  Fredericksburgh,  Sharpsburgh,  and  Gettysburgh  ? 
The  great  spirits  who  fell  there  and  passed  from  the  shadows  of  earth 
amid  the  roar  of  artillery  and  the  red  blaze  of  war  have  long  since 
made  peace  on  the  camping-grounds  of  the  brave  and  the  just ;  over 
the  scenes  of  their  last  mortal  combat  the  green  grass  and  the  sweet 
flowers  of  nature  have  returned  with  the  beautiful  spring,  and  from 
their  united  ranks  on  that  august  field  of  review  before  which  all 
human  actions  must  pass  there  descends  to  their  countrymen  the 
"  white  flag"  of  a  final  and  unending  truce,  with  the  message  that 
their  blood  has  been  sufficient  atonement  for  the  sins  of  the  nation, 
and  that  over  their  peaceful  graves  their  countrymen  must  shake 
hands  and  forever  be  friends. 

Then,  Senators,  in  the  name  of  our  great  forefathers  who  for  civil 
and  religious  liberty  braved  the  ocean,  the  tempest,  the  forest,  and 
the  savage  to  rescue  freedom  from  its  fate  in  Europe  and  plant  it  in  this 
new  world;,  "by  the  memory  of  those  patriots  who  one  hundred 
years  ago  gave  their  blood  and  treasure  like  water  to  establish  our 
independence;  by  the  names  of  those  who  have  fallen  on  every  field 
from  Lexington  to  Appomattox,  let  us  be  friends,  countrymen,  broth- 
ers. 1 1  invoke  the  Senators  of  Massachusetts  by  the  memory  of 
North  Carolina's  succor  in  her  darkest  hour;  I  invoke  the  Senators 
from  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and  Delaware  by  the 
memories  of  their  united  struggles  with  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and 
Georgia ;  I  invoke  the  Senators  from  every  State — from  the  great 


68 

daughters  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  from  those  mighty  Com- 
monwealths that  sprang  from  the  Louisiana  purchase  by  Jefferson 
and  were  saved  hy  the  valor  and  patriotism  of  southern  men  under 
Jackson — I  invoke  all,  this  day  and  this  hour  to  gather  around  the 
family  altars^and  end  forever  and  forever  this  fratricidal  strife.  And 
we  shall  rear  upon  the  ruins  of  our  errors  and  follies,  over  the  preju- 
dices, passions,  and  hates  of  the  past  a  grander  and  nobler  temple  of 
wisdom,  justice,  and  liberty  than  the  sun  has  yet  shone  upon,  and 
all  over  and  through  that  temple  from  its  foundation  to  its  dome 
we  shall  behold  arrayed  side  by  side  the  virtues,  the  valor,  the 
sacrifices,  and  the  immortal  achievements  of  the  North  and  the  South. 
And  then  as  the  sun  rises  in  the  east  and  makes  his  daily  revolutions 
until  he  sinks  to  rest  in  the  west  his  beams  will  spread  the  light  of 
American  liberty  and  the  glory  of  a  happy  and  united  people  over  the 
whole  earth  as  a  blessing  to  all  mankind. 

And  now,  Senators,- 1  conclude  with  the  sentiments  with  which  I 
began.  I  thank  a  merciful  Providence  that  I  have  been  spared  to 
see  this  day  and  inspired  with  the  courage  and  truth  to  vindicate 
the  character  of  the  South  and  make  a  faithful  effort  to  restore  and 
preserve  the  American  Union.  I  thank  God  that,  if  I  do  nothing 
else,  I  can  at  least  leave  to  my  sons  this  record,  that  when  they  shall 
remember  that  the  people  of  the  South,  animated  by  patriotic  cour- 
age, undertook  in  obedience  to  the  principles  handed  down  to  them 
by  their  fathers  to  separate  the  Union  and  arrayed  themselves  in 
arms  to  accomplish  that  end,  and  they  shall  see  the  name  of  their 
ancestors  among  those  whose  bright  bayonets  on  the  12th  day  of  July, 
1864,  reflected  the  beams  of  the  morning  sun  back  on  the  dome  of  the 
nation's  Capitol,  my  children  shall  also  behold  the  name  of  their 
father,  when  that  sad  war  was  over,  enrolled  in  the  same  Capitol 
among  those  who  were  striving  with  unalterable  and  unchangeable 
devotion  to  cherish  and  perpetuate  forever  the  Union  of  the  States, 
the  Constitution,  and  liberty.  And  may  God  bless  me  with  the 
strength  and  patriotism  to  do  so  much  for  the  peace,  happiness,  and 
honor  of  my  country  that  no  human  being  can  doubt  the  sincerity  of 
my  attachment  and  love  for  her. 

Senators,  I  cannot  take  my  seat  without  expressing  to  you  more 
than  my  deepest  acknowledgments  for  the  kindness  with  which  you 
have  this  day  heard  me  and  for  the  sympathy  and  generosity  which 
all  of  you  have  manifested  for  me  since  my  admission  to  this  Cham- 
ber. Extend  that  sympathy  and  generosity  to  the  noble  people  of 
the  South,  and  they  will  return  to  you  the  warm  gratitude  and  friend- 
ship which  I  now  feel,  and  hope  to  carry  in  my  heart  through  life. 


00032772777 

FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


Form  No.  A-368,  Rev.  8/95 


C 


